Cascade Bicycle Club Education Foundation Programs
Education
Our education programs help kids and families embrace healthy lifestyles. Each year, we teach bicycling skills to 15,000 kids during their P.E. classes, encouraging a lifetime of safe riding. We also work with school districts to create safe routes to schools and run bike-to-school programs for 3,500 kids annually. Through our Trips for Kids Seattle and Major Taylor Project programs for underserved high-school students, we teach bike-maintenance and riding skills while also fostering life skills like leadership and goal-setting.
Outreach
Our outreach staff attends community events across the region to talk to people about bicycling and encourage them to ride more often. We provide free and low-cost helmets and teach people to share our roads and trails safely. We’re committed to reaching people from diverse backgrounds and spreading the word about opportunities to speak up for safe, connected neighborhoods.
Policy and planning
When our communities are connected by safe, convenient bicycling routes, more people will ride. By pushing for policies and transportation plans that create safe, livable neighborhoods, our policy and planning programs improve community health and sustainability. We encourage businesses to become bike-friendly workplaces; train city planners to design transportation plans that encourage walking and biking; empower volunteers to become effective advocates; and work with partners across sectors to build broad support for bicycling.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Recent success
Results of a poll Cascade commissioned in December 2012 showed overwhelming support for safe, convenient bicycling infrastructure among Seattle voters, yet local governments and agencies are lagging behind community support. Harnessing the enthusiasm of our community, we ran a six-week campaign to stop a backroom deal that would have led the City of Seattle and Sound Transit to spend tens of millions of dollars on a 900-stall parking garage at the Northgate Link light rail station. The campaign generated in more than 1,000 emails from our constituents, resulting in $20 million for gravely needed bicycle and pedestrian improvements in Northgate and setting a precedent for bicycle and pedestrian access to and around future stations.
Current need
Cascade’s large fundraising rides like the Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic once provided the bulk of funding for the Education Foundation’s work; however, we have had to double our program staff during the past five years to keep up with the demands of the growing bicycling community. We successfully grown all of our programs, launched new programs and hired new staff over the past year – all while maintaining a six-month reserve of fixed expenses. But we will not be able to continue meeting community need without support from our growing base of individual donors.
During GiveBIG, a Cascade Board member has agreed to match every gift given up to $10,000. With this match and the gift from the Seattle Foundation stretch pool your gift will count more than double!