Bay students pedal 23,000 miles during Bike To School Challenge

Bay Middle School's front fence packed with bicycles was only one sign of the huge success and impact of the ninth annual Bay Bike to School Challenge. This year, the program continues to help transform Bay Village into a bicycling hub.

While the kids won prizes for biking and had fun riding, they also racked up some serious numbers. From May 2 through May 20, Bay Middle School and Westerly Elementary School students:

• Biked 23,775 miles;
• Took 8,552 round-tip bicycle rides to school;
• Burned 608,033 calories – or the equivalent of 3,340 cans of Coca-Cola;
• Prevented 18,274 pounds of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions from entering the environment;
• Saved their parents $2,098 on gasoline.

Those statistics also reflect a record-setting year at Westerly Elementary School, where the award-winning program returned for its second year, with all-new high marks set in every category tracked:

• 174 students biked each day of the challenge on average, a whopping 48 percent of the school's enrollment of 362 students and up 6 percent over last year's average of 169.
• 52 percent of Westerly students biked to school on May 20, the final day of the challenge.

Bay Middle School racked up impressive numbers as in previous years, despite wet weather and below-average temperatures during much of the program:

• On May 4, which was National Bike To School Day, 511 students, or 65 percent of Bay Middle School's 787 students, biked to school, the highest participation rate of all days of this year's challenge.
• During all three weeks of the challenge, an average of 454 students biked to school each day, for an average of 58 percent of the student body.

All this and more was celebrated at the closing assembly at Bay Middle School on May 20.

The students' bicycling also won them prizes, including grand prizes of two bicycles at each school, provided by program sponsors Raleigh Bicycles and Century Cycles bicycle shop of Rocky River. Additional prizes were provided by Bike Cleveland, Honey Hut Ice Cream Shoppe, and Subway in Bay Village.