Calgary after-school program provides life lessons and free bikes

A unique program in Calgary is giving kids a safe place to hang out and learn how to repair bikes.

The Earn-a-Bike program is run by Two Wheel View. The motto of Two Wheel View is “changing kids’ lives from the seat of a bike.”

The non-profit group runs a number of programs in Calgary, including the after-school bike repair project. It runs Thursday afternoons at the Two Wheel View bike shop in Sunalta, across from the LRT station.

“Being able to work with your hands on bikes and create relationships with others around you and being able to problem solve, these are all skills that are transferable into real life,” said Robyn Cabunoc-Boettcher, who helps run the Earn-a-Bike program.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Being able to work with your hands on bikes and create relationships with others around you and being able to problem solve, these are all skills that are transferable into real life," said Robyn Cabunoc-Boettcher, who helps run the Earn-a-Bike program.

He said the program  creates opportunities for young people to learn and practice lessons in leadership, health and wellness, self-esteem, achievement and environmental stewardship through their participation in bicycle education programs.

Staff at Two Wheel View said their after-school programming is critical in the lives of youth, particularly those who may be vulnerable or are having challenges at home.

“It makes them feel comfortable to have an older person that isn’t their parents or their teachers that is a positive mentor,” Cabunoc-Boettcher said.

The youths aged 11-17 get their hands dirty doing some serious problem solving.

“I’ve learned how to adjust brakes and how to take the wheel off and how to exchange tires and how to adjust some things. It’s pretty fun I’ve learned a lot,” said Grade 11 student Brandon Ouellette.

But the bike club is about more than just gears and brakes.

“I’ve seen a lot of social and emotional improvements,” Cabunoc-Boettcher said.

“Being able to recognize emotions, being able to problem solve through tough frustrating times, and being able to feel like they have community. Being able to feel like they have belonging is really important to us.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Being able to recognize emotions, being able to problem solve through tough frustrating times, and being able to feel like they have community. Being able to feel like they have belonging is really important to us."

Many of the bikes at the shop are donated and repaired by volunteers like avid mountain biker Kevin Dalton. Since being laid off recently in Calgary, Dalton decided to put his passion for bikes to good use and now donates his time at Two Wheel View.

“The fact that you can fix a bike and it goes to a child who needs one, that’s terrific. I thoroughly believe that there’s not a lot that’s wrong with the world that can’t be fixed by going for a bike ride,” Dalton said.

“It just changes your perspective. It’s satisfying. I view it as therapy. If I’m having a bad day, I jump on the bike and ride around for a while and I come back and it’s not a bad day anymore.”

At the end of the Earn-a-Bike program, the kids get a bike of their own to keep. It’s a reward for volunteering their time repairing bikes.

“They get super excited and they’re super stoked to get their new bikes and helmets and a lock. But that’s the long-term goal and all the short-term goals that we do within the program of fixing air and brakes and the chain of the bike, all of those short-term goals are how these kids grow themselves and they don’t even know it’s happening,” Cabunoc-Boettcher said.

Thousands of youth have gone through the Two Wheel View bike programs in Calgary since it started 10 years ago.