PedalPower
The PedalPower Youth Bike Program teaches school children how to safely ride bikes. As of the start of the 2025-2026 school year, every 4th and 5th grader in the Ashland School District will learn and practice on-bike skills.
Read the joint press release (pdf) published in October 2025 by Ashland Parks and Recreation and the Ashland Climate Collaborative.
About the Program
This program teaches every Ashland School District 4th and 5th grader how to ride a bike. The 10-hour safety course taught by certified instructors includes covering rules of the road, helmet fitting, getting comfortable on a bike, riding around the school grounds, and more! It’s social, fun, great for growing bodies, and gets kids outside and exercising.
Volunteers Needed!
We need volunteers to help our instructors. Volunteers help with many tasks, most importantly riding along with kids on the bike path and local streets.
Volunteers also help adjust helmets, fit kids to bikes, unload/reload our trailer of bikes and, if able, help with those few 4th/5th graders who have never rode before. There’s nothing much more gratifying for a bike lover than to help a kid learn how to balance and ride for the first time.
TRAILS Sept. 26-Oct. 3 (2 one-hour sessions each weekday)
Willow Wind Oct. 14-24 (2 one-hour sessions each weekday)
Bellview Spring schedule TBD, likely March 2026
Walker April 6-17 (4 one-hour sessions each weekday)
Interested? Please complete the school district application ASAP and then email our program manager Mike Vergeer at mvergeer@yahoo.com with your interest and availability.
Benefits of Biking
Riding bikes offers incredible benefits for our children!
- contributes to physical and mental well-being
- aids concentration
- encourages active outdoor time
- enhances social interaction
- builds confidence
- increases coordination
Mastering how to ride a bike builds skills and habits that serve children throughout their entire lives.
Biking reduces pollution, too!
Swapping out gas-powered car trips with biking reduces local climate pollution. When students bike to school, there is less traffic congestion and auto pollution around crowded drop-off and pick-up areas, saving parents time. As kids move into middle school, they can get themselves to extracurricular activities and later to after-school jobs.
Program Sponsors
We are grateful to RVTD and Ashland Parks & Recreation for shepherding this program through since the early 2000s! Thanks to these generous sponsors for making this program possible.
Dreams Come True
In 2025, with assistance from generous sponsors, many of our dreams have become a reality:
- Replaced the aging fleet of 35 bicycles with brand new bikes for 4th and 5th grade students
- Purchased an enclosed trailer for safe transport and storage
- Acquired new helmets and additional safety equipment
- Brought on additional certified instructors
- Created an official PedalPower program identity with a new logo
Thanks to our local vendors Hardcastle’s Trailers, The Handlebar Bike Shop, Ashland Cycles Sport, and CarterWorks Graphic Design!
Our Team
Mike Vergeer
PedalPower Community Bike Program Director
Camille Siders
Bike Safety Instructor
Lara McCormick
Bike Safety Instructor, Commute Options, Rogue Valley Safe Routes to School Coordinator
Leslie Eldridge
Bike Safety Instructor
Rachel Dials
Ashland Parks & Recreation Deputy Director
Erin O’Kelley Muck
Executive Director, Ashland Climate Collaborative
About the Program
Program Background
The PedalPower Youth Bike Program represents a new dawn for youth bike safety in Southern Oregon and a reinvigoration of a beloved pre-pandemic program.
PedalPower began in the early 2000s as a collaboration between Ashland Parks and Recreation and Rogue Valley Transportation District (RVTD), but was discontinued during the pandemic. A reboot of the program has been hamstrung by severe federal funding cuts at RVTD and the need to replace aging equipment. Beginning in fall 2024, the Ashland Climate Collaborative joined the partnership to help with additional fundraising and promotional support.
Ashland Parks and Recreation and the Ashland Parks Foundation have been integral since the inception of the PedalPower program, raising funds via the annual Ashland Community Bike Swap held each April since the early 2000s. The proceeds generated from the Bike Swap have funded major program components.
PedalPower encompasses both the Youth Bike Program and the Community Bike Shop that operates out of the Grove, located at 1195 E.Main St. in Ashland. At the Community Bike Shop, dedicated volunteers give hundreds of hours to repairing donated bicycles, and will maintain the new bikes purchased for the program’s instructional fleet. Work parties take place on Tuesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and/or Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Students Served
In the 2024 school year, the program served 145 students at Helman and Bellview elementary schools. This fall, all 362 4th and 5th graders across Ashland’s five public elementary schools will participate in a ten-hour on-bike skills and safety course.
Vision for the Future
The program’s future plans include expanding to serve kindergarteners and 1st graders in Ashland, then extending to Talent and Phoenix elementary schools — ultimately teaching over 1,300 students annually.
To achieve this vision, we need funding for:
- Hiring a dedicated program manager
- Acquiring 35 balance bikes for Kindergarten and 1st graders
- Kindergarten / 1st grade helmets and equipment
Donate to the Program
We continue to pursue multiple funding sources to realize our full program vision. We also know that with cuts to the Oregon Department of Transportation, to RVTD, and other long time partners, funding is more crucial than ever.
Want to support PedalPower with a tax-deductible donation? Please donate by mail and write a check to:
Ashland Parks Foundation
PO BOX 247
Ashland, OR 97520
Write PedalPower in the memo line.
If you would like more information about this program, please contact us!
The PedalPower program is mindblowingly awesome. I got to volunteer with TRAILS last week to help out, and I was so so impressed. It was so well organized and smooth, and several kids told me it was the best day they’ve ever had at school. Kudos to you and your board and the team involved and thank you for all your work!
– Dan Ruby
Contact us
If you would like to learn more about any of our programs — group bike rides, bike buses, Bicycle Benefits, PedalPower youth bike education, or how to make our streets safer, please email us for more information.
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