SANDPOINT — Farmin Stidwell Elementary’s outdoor education instructor Tim Kerrigan and fifth grade teacher Mac Hollan have a goal this spring: “get kids hooked on bikes.” 

To do it, the duo has spent the last several Friday mornings cycling to school on a predetermined route and picking up student bikers along the way to form the area’s first “bike bus.” 

Kerrigan and Hollan were inspired to launch the program after fellow teacher Renee Lorden showed them a video of a similar program in Oregon several months back. After getting the necessary approval, the bus made its debut April 18 — complete with a homemade sign attached to the back of Kerrigan’s bike trailer — and has been steadily gaining riders each Friday since.

Leading up to the launch, Kerrigan and Hollan reached out to Emily Strizich, executive director of local cycling club Pend Oreille Pedalers, and proposed a program in which residents could donate their unused bikes to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have access to one. 

“She loved the idea,” Kerrigan recalled; since then, locals have gifted 14 bikes, and Kerrigan and Hollan have used their mechanical skills as hobbyist mountain bikers to begin fixing them up and distributing them to students. 

Hollan noted that the duo has also received a collection of safety reflectors and bike bells from Erin Billings, coordinator of the district’s Safe Routes to School program, to ensure students have the equipment they need to ride safely. 

“Sandpoint is a gold mine for giving,” Hollan said. “When you need something, if you ask enough people, it seems to materialize.” 

While the debut program will end with the school year in early June, Kerrigan and Hollan are already envisioning an expanded route for next year that will accommodate more students. 

“We kept it very conservative this year just to make sure we got to school on time,” Hollan said. “We now know we can cover twice as much ground.” 

The organizers also described the current bike bus as a “pilot program,” and mentioned that they imagine spreading the initiative to other local schools like Washington Elementary. 

When asked what they hope students get out of the program, Kerrigan and Hollan said that when kids learn how to safely navigate paths and streets, they gain the ability to get around town independently.

“For kids, bikes are their first freedom,” Hollan said. “We live in a tiny town where kids can be ‘free range’ and bike everywhere. You can get all over town in 10 minutes.” 

Kerrigan also noted that by offering students exercise before class, the bike bus “helps kids focus and mellows them out.” 

“There are a lot of tests that say a little bit of activity goes a long way to help kids wake up and regulate themselves,” he added. 

One of the program’s most important benefits, the duo said, is that it opens students’ eyes to the enhanced awareness inherent to bicycle travel. By establishing a habit of biking through your community instead of driving through it, you can begin to notice subtleties that are often overlooked. 

“Part of biking is that you're exposed to the world. You notice the weather. You notice the seasons changing,” Hollan said. 

“You're not sitting in your car with the air conditioning, listening to music — you're seeing your neighborhood, seeing people,” he added. “It's just a more connected way to travel.”