Kids rustle up bikes at rodeo

REDLANDS, Oct 06, 2008 (Redlands Daily Facts - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- WMT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Carlos Soriano could hardly contain his excitement.

The 10-year-old Redlands resident had just won a bicycle and was already thinking about the next drawing to come.

"This is awesome," said Carlos, unable to erase the smile from his face. "Who wouldn't be excited about getting a free bike? Hopefully I'll get another one."

Soriano was one of the children who came away with a two-wheeled treasure at the Redlands Police Department's annual Bicycle Rodeo.

Held Saturday in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart store on Redlands Boulevard, the rodeo taught kids bicycle safety through instructional videos and a safety-training course, and gave away free helmets and bicycles.

"We teach bicycle safety

to kids of any age," said Citizen Volunteer patrol member Rudy Lozano, who has helped put on the event for many years. "There are so many head traumas that are a result of bicycle accidents and bicycle injuries in general. We try and push the safety aspect tremendously."

Lozano said that the rodeo also serves as a vehicle to promote a collaborative effort between the Police Department and the community.

This was the first year the rodeo was held at Wal-Mart, which donated bicycles and also provided food for the event.

"This event brings a lot of kids out and Wal-Mart wanted to be involved in something that's so good for the community," said Debbie Mullins, community involvement coordinator for Wal-Mart. "Throughout

the year we get a lot of returned bikes and we give a lot of them to the Redlands Police Department."

All kids who attended the free event were required to watch a short instructional video on bicycle safety in the Police Department's command center bus. After watching the video, each child was given a raffle ticket for the bicycle drawings that were held throughout the rodeo.

"My two stepdaughters and my daughter got bikes," said Ralph Sistos of Redlands. "I was just hoping

they would get helmets, but it's great that they got new bikes. We do a lot of bike riding, so this is wonderful."

Between bike drawings, kids participated in the Meet a Police Officer program, in which where they were encouraged to approach and talk to officers in exchange for another raffle ticket.

"It helps with any fears or barriers kids have towards officers," Officer Natasha Crawford said. "The point is just to get kids to talk to police officers so they become more comfortable with them."

The Redlands Fire Department had a fire engine for kids to explore and those with bikes took part in the safety-training course.

"This is the same course that officers have to do in order to ride bicycles," said

Citizen Volunteer Patrol member Russ Dawkins. "We try and teach them the correct signals when riding a bike and stress safety and always wearing a helmet."

Destiny Waechtler, 9, of Redlands said the safety training was important, "so you won't get hurt."

"This is a wonderful event," Destiny's mother Denise Waechtler said. "It's really important that the kids learn that there is more to riding a bike than just the fun aspect. They need to know to be safe. It's fun watching some of the kids wobbling on the course, because they think they're going to ace it but it's harder than it looks."

E-mail Staff Writer Kevin Trudgeon at ktrudgeon@redlandsdailyfacts.com

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