Students bicycle 28,052 miles during Bay Bike to School Challenge and inspire an Oklahoma school

Bay Village students in grades 5 through 12 logged a whopping 28,052 miles bicycling to school in just three weeks, transformed their schools’ transportation habits, helped the environment, and even inspired a school in Oklahoma during Bay Bike To School Challenge sponsored by Century Cycles and Chipotle. The award-winning program concluded on Friday, May 21, with school-wide assemblies at both Bay Middle School and Bay High School to celebrate the students' accomplishments and award the grand prizes of free bicycles, burritos for a year and more.  

Bay Village Mayor Deborah Sutherland praised the students and told them that Bay Bike to School Challenge has inspired her to bicycle more to work at City Hall. The inspiration wasn’t confined to Northeast Ohio, however. A high school in Edmond, Oklahoma had their very first Bike to School day on Friday, May 21, after being inspired by Bay Village’s efforts last year.

Sutherland and other officials praised their students' effort and encouraged them to keep bicycling all summer long. Other speakers included Scott Sanders, Executive Director of the Earth Day Coalition, Michael Patterson from Rep. Dennis Kucinich's office, and Scott Cowan, owner of Century Cycles.

From May 3 to May 21, Bay Bike to School Challenge racked up some big numbers. Bay Middle and High School students biked a total of 28,052 miles, saving an estimated 28,641 pounds of CO2 emissions and $3,857 in gasoline. On average, 481 Bay Middle School students biked to school each day (178 students on average for the high school). Since beginning in 2008, Bay Bike to School Challenge has saved 82,352 pounds of CO2 emissions and logged 89,052 bicycling miles.  

On May 21, school administrators were also striving to reach “1000 Bikes in Bay." They almost met their goal. The bike count for the day was 930 bicycles – 285 at Bay High School, 514 at Bay Middle School, 125 at Westerly, plus a few more at Normandy, the school board office and Glenview. Organizer Jason Martin, Assistant Principal at BHS, deemed it a success and said, “This was definitely the most bicycles we’ve ever had at Bay schools on one day.”  

At Bay High School, the grand prize winners of Raleigh and Giant bicycles from Century Cycles were Luke Reid, Nick Snyder, Abe Zbornik and Nathan McDonald. At Bay Middle School, the bicycle winners were Nick Portonova, Ron Gilman, Matthew Thomas and Dominic Passalacqua.  The winners of free Chipotle burritos for a year were Laurence Gaide at BHS and Hayley Langer at BMS. A special drawing was held for the students who bicycled all 15 school days of the challenge that was won by Hillary Stradtman at BHS and Hunter Dunlop at BMS.

Over 60 more students won grand prizes from Century Cycles, Earth Day Coalition, Main Street Cupcakes, Mitchell’s Ice Cream, Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park, Project Earth Environmental Club, Bay Skate and Bike Park Foundation, Vanitylab Salon, Bay Lanes and more.

Tracey Bradnan lives in Bay Village.