Children Love HydroBikes on Camping Excursion
Dear Dean,
Our second summer with the Hydrobikes proved as successful as the first. The first thing the returning campers asked when they arrived at the Bike Farm camp in June was, do you still have the HydroBikes? The second question was, “when can we ride them?” It did not take long for the new campers to become equally enamored with these floating bicycles. This year we had children requiring a lot of attention and help with impulse control and basic social skills. The popularity of the Hydrobikes provided a great opportunity to teach patience and cooperation. With one Hydrobike for every four campers, the kids not only learned how to take turns, but also worked out ways to turn Hydrobiking into a group activity. Being towed behind a Hydro-bike is almost as much fun as doing the pedaling!
Our camp employs what we call the RELATE approach, an acronym that spells out Respect, Empathize, Love, Attend, Trust and Empower. The kids at the BikeFarm enjoy milking goats, harvesting vegetables, helping prepare homemade lunches, and many other responsibilities. Providing such opportunities is a way that we show them that we trust and respect them, and they feel good about their contributions. We also spend a lot of time enjoying nature, building things, going on bike rides, and hanging out at the lake. While all of these activities help the kids build their confidence and self-esteem, the Hydrobikes seemed to do the most to ‘empower’. Let me give an example. At the end of the summer day camp we hosted a camping trip. The kids decided the best place to camp would be on an island. To get there we used a rowboat, several canoes, a home-built raft, and the Hydrobikes. The following day was extremely windy, and against the direction we needed to go to get back to the main shore. Still, we loaded up the canoes and rowboat and several campers took off. Much to their surprise, they couldn’t move against the wind. An eight year old boy who had been perhaps the most challenged camper the entire summer, saw their plight and asked if he could rescue them. He found a rope, climbed upon the Hydrobike and pedaled after them. Within minutes he had the rope tied to the canoe and despite the strong winds, was able to tow them all the way to the landing. Other children “rescued” the other boats in the same fashion.
How does one measure such experiences? We understand that all the BikeFarm kids are doing better in school this year. All the kids say they would like to come back to camp next summer. The eight-year-old who initiated the rescue asked if he could come to camp for the next eight summers and then work as a camp counselor after that!
Anyway Dean, I again wanted to say thank you for giving us the idea of using Hydrobikes at our camp and making them available. The BikeFarm would not be nearly the success it is without them.
Happy Wakes,
Â
Steve Clark - Program Director
