Cycle Kids is rolling into Albuquerque schools, giving students the chance to build confidence and community from the seat of a bike. More than just teaching kids how to ride, the program fosters peer mentorship, focus and resilience; skills that extend far beyond the playground. By providing bikes and a thoughtfully designed curriculum, Cycle Kids empowers children, particularly in low-income communities, to embrace healthy habits and discover lifelong confidence through cycling and nutrition education.
Julianne Idlet is the CEO of Cycle Kids, and she founded the organization in 2004, starting in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The program has grown to reach 10,000 children across the U.S., with another 14,000 on the waitlist. Idlet believes in the importance of bike education to broaden the perspectives of children while they are still in their formative years.
“For me, it was important as a child,” Idlet said. “It was my transportation, it was my play, it was my confidence. It gave me freedom.”
Idlet said that through her cycling coaching at Harvard, she realized that a lot of kids didn’t have the opportunity to learn how to ride a bike, either because a bike or a teacher wasn’t accessible. “I wanted to bring them that opportunity, because biking is confidence,” Idlet said. “It's not just pushing pedals and getting from place A to place B, but it's that confidence, it's that freedom. It's that sense of, I can do anything; it's resilience. If you have a flat tire, you have to know how to fix it and change it. It’s knowing that you can take care of yourself.”
Ashley Wedelich is the Southwest Program Director and an avid cyclist herself. She has seen firsthand how cycling has changed her life, and now, working with schools, how it is changing lives for the kids participating. “One of the biggest skills they learn is peer mentorship, and the kids are actually working together,” Wedelich said. “ And another big skill is their ability to concentrate. Concentration and cycling is super important, whether you're on the road or you're on a mountain bike, and it teaches you to be present in the moment, instead of on a screen or whatever a lot of kids are doing these days.”
Together, Wedelich and Idlet work to get this program in schools, but their biggest blockade is finding funding to get the bikes and the curriculum instituted. Cycle Kids is run by a small team, but they work to partner with schools rather than just dropping off a handbook. And once the program is initiated into the school’s curriculum, it lasts for years.
“Bikes don't wear out,” Idlet said. “You might need new tires, but they're just being used as part of a gym curriculum. So once we put a program into a school, a funder can know this is going to impact children for years. It's not a one-and-done thing; it's going into that school, and it's going to impact generations.”
Cycle Kids’ mission at its core is to empower children around health and wellness and give them the skills they need to feel more confident in whatever they do. “What Cycle Kids is doing is just giving them the tools in their little mental toolbox to be confident in themselves and to feel good about the things that they're doing,” Wedelich said.
This program teaches kids the importance of healthy eating and regular exercise, showing how these habits can positively shape their daily lives. Beyond physical health, the impact reaches further, from improved academic performance to reduced stress and sharper focus in the classroom. “And that's what cycling did for me,” Wedelich said. “I think at that age you are able to give the kids that little piece of knowledge that is in the back of their brain to take with them when they're adults; to be healthy, happy, and functioning people in our society.”
The Cycle Kids team may be small, but their impact is mighty, reaching more than 10,000 children across the country. In communities nationwide, thousands of kids are building confidence, strengthening peer connections, and developing skills that will stay with them for life. “The power of Cycle Kids is that it plants a seed,” Idlet said. “And it's that little kernel of hope that you can plant in a child that really can grow into something and help make a change.”
Cycle Kids’ mission at its core is to empower children around health and wellness and give them the skills they need to feel more confident in whatever they do.
The power of Cycle Kids is that it plants a seed.