Another reason to love June: it’s Walk & Bike Month in Colorado.

I’m a big fan of Community Cycles here in my hometown of Boulder, Colorado.

A few years back I had the pleasure of working with fellow bike advocate Rich Points, when we co-served as Bicycle Ambassadors for the city. Our job was to promote cycling to Boulderites and conduct safety seminars with kiddie groups. It was a cool job: we got paid to inspire people to ride!

Rich has since taken his ambassadorial duties to a new level as Executive Director of Community Cycles, a non-profit that he co-founded four years ago. Their mission is

“to educate and advocate for the safe use of bicycles as an affordable, viable and sustainable means of transportation”

Among the organization’s most impressive initiatives is the Earn-A-Bike program.  For 15 hours of service, anyone can get a shiny new, used bike. Pretty cool!

I’ve had the pleasure of teaching a few of the kids’ bike classes through the Family Learning Center. We teach the kiddos bike safety, simple mechanics and ride like screamin’ demons on the bike paths throughout Boulder.  The last day of the six week class is a dream come true as they all get a new bike!

(See smiley faces in video below!)

The good news is that Community Cycles is not only a Boulder thing—there’s a wave of bike co-ops popping up all over our country.  It seems that we’ve finally realized how important the bicycle is not only to our own health but for the environment. Check out this list to find one near you!

And don’t forget, June is Walk and Bike Month in Colorado and there are tons of activities all month long.  My personal favorite is Bike to Work day on the 23rd with 45 free breakfast stations scattered all over town…Ideal Market is usually the best!

Video time…Check out Community Cycles in action!

And here’s the kids’ program.