Cycling Tips & Stories Article

MoBikeFed President Joe Torrisi, who works for the St. Louis School District, along with Mimi Deem, a Compton Drew teacher, developed an interesting program to combat childhood obesity--a middle school bicycle club that rides in Forest Park three times every week:

An area bike shop donated 30 Specialized hybrids, and the Compton-Drew Bike Club was in business. The club has become a fixture at nearby Forest Park, where the students have earned praise from park regulars for their manners and observance of bicycle etiquette while training at least three times a week, weather permitting.

Although riding the park's six-mile loop met the primary objective of exercise, Deem and Torrisi soon realized a larger goal was required to maintain the students' interest.

"We needed a culminating event," said Torrisi, currently the president of the Missouri Bicycle Federation.

And so, in 2002, the first batch of Compton-Drew students hit the trail.

When the year-end rides to Jefferson City on the Katy Trail proved a success, Deem and Torrisi added a 75-mile round-trip fall ride from St. Louis to Principia College in Elsah.

Read all about the Compton Drew Bicycle Club's trip to Jefferson City in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. (Be sure to view the slide show.)

Developing more youth programs to involved children in healthy activities like bicycling--one of the few sports children can pursue for a lifetime--is one of MoBikeFed's goals in its Vision of Active Transportation in Missouri.

Related:

News: "Sharing the road" in Press Journal

News: Scuola Vita Nuova Bike Club to join MoBikeFed for Katy Trail ride with legislators

News: Photos from the Katy Trail Ride with Legislators, April 20th, 2009

Tips&Stories: Compton Drew Middle School Bicycle Club starts annual Katy Trail Adventure

Tips&Stories: The Compton Drew Middle School Dolphins Bicycle Club