Ride for Reading in Fort Collins Again!

Fort Collins, Colorado – Fourteen local, national and international organizations are coming together to encourage children to read and value bicycling.

In celebration of National Bike to School Week, over 60 bicyclists will pedal more than 1,500 books to students at Harris Bilingual School and Laurel School of Arts and Technology. The bicyclists, New Belgium Brewing Employees, OtterBox Employee Volunteers, Bicycle Ambassadors, Bicycle Pedestrian Education Coalition, Safe Routes to Schools Representatives, and other bicycling advocates are supporting the work of Ride for Reading, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to promote literacy and healthy living through the distribution of books via bicycle to children in low-income neighborhoods.

Local thrift and used book stores – EcoThrift, Book Lovers, Brand Spanking Used – have all donated gently used books for distribution. Those books will be blended with books from the online book seller, Better World Books and books donated by Clothes Pony. In addition, New Belgium Brewing is hosting a Book Drive, offering a tasting room discount to any visitors who donate books. Books that are not given during this delivery will be held for a delivery in the fall.

Safe Routes to School coordinator, Nancy Nichols, has helped determine the safest routes for the delivery cyclists. With its mission to make school routes safe for children when walking and bicycling to school, Safe Routes to School will attend the deliveries and give an informational bookmark to each student.

Ridekick Co-owner, Dee Wanger, participated in Ride for Reading delivery rides in 2011, 2012, and 2013 at the national bicycle trade show, Interbike. A former elementary school teacher, she was inspired by the experience and offered to be the Northern Colorado program coordinator for Ride for Reading deliveries. A delivery of over 500 books was made to Putnam School in 2013.

“This is such an exciting collaborative effort!” Wanger said. “It’s bringing together people who like to bicycle and want it to be safe for everyone, people who like to read, people who are donating their books and their time…all for the purpose of instilling and enabling a love of bicycling and reading in children.”