Fabulous Partnerships: Working with the ICA James Coates, Bike Education Coordinator
Photos by Steven Baileys
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apital Bike has a long history of working with many fantastic community groups and doing our part to support their work: the Victoria Immigrant & Refugee Centre Society (VIRCS), the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria (ICA), Our Place, Mustard Seed, many local community centres, local schools, and more. In the fall of 2021, we were approached by the District of Saanich to run an event called “Try an E-Bike” at the ICA. Students in their English language training courses, staff, and volunteers were able to experience e-bikes in fun workshops taught by our Bike Skills Instructors. Over two days, we guided groups of 12 participants through an hour-long course that included a
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classroom presentation, parking lot bike handling lessons, and a fun guided road ride. The ride was a particular hit, as participants got to experience what an e-bike can really do. This course presented us with fun new challenges as well as fantastic opportunities. It was a challenge to update all our presentations and lessons for a variety of English levels. With help from the kind staff at the ICA, as well as the fact that fun on e-bikes translates extremely well to any language, we were able to keep the course engaging and fun for all. Smiling faces in the pictures from the twoday program prove it. continued on page 15
