The 10th Anniversary City of Cupertino Bike Fest this year was bigger and better than ever!
More than 650 people came to the festival–the most ever for Bike Fest. About 150 participants enjoyed the 1.5 mile Family ride and a whopping 120 participants pedalled for 9 1/2 miles on the Park Review ride. That’s about 10x more than usually attend the longer and faster ride. The festival included new activities as well as old favorites, and as always, Walk-Bike Cupertino was an active participant and planner in all the festivities.
The Family ride leaves the City Center area for a 1.5 mile ride and some fun games in a local park.
A mom wins the LED race
Bike Fest Fun
The activities for all ages were a big hit. One of the new ones was a “spin-art” booth, where participants could ride and create art. A second new booth allowed two participants to race on stationary bikes to see who could make the tower of LED lights get to the top first. Participants could also make their own up-cycled bike jewelry, with various chain and gear parts, and of course there were the perennial favorites: bike blender smoothie making, button making, bike decorating, and face painting. Event participants did not need to bring their own bike to enjoy any of these activities, except for the two chaperoned bike rides, the Family (1.5 mile) ride and the Park Review (9.5 mile) longer ride.
Cupertino Bicycle Pedestrian Commissioners John Zhao, Hervé Marcy, and Joel Wolf led the bikes rides.
WBC Boardmembers Jennifer Shearin and Seema Lindskog were Leads for the event, helping plan and execute the day.
Cupertino Safe Routes to School Coordinator Cherie Walkowiak with Poppy, the festival balloon mascot.
Cool Bikes
Lots of people brought some custom and interesting bikes to the festival! Here’s just a few.
Making it all happen
Months of preparation were led by Cherie Walkowiak, Safe Routes to School (SR2S) coordinator, and the assistant SR2S coordinator Birgit Werner. Similar to last year, Walk-Bike Cupertino Board members Helene Davis, Jennifer Shearin, and Seema Lindskog met with them monthly to plan and organize, and then led several of the booths and logistics on that day. About 40 student volunteers also helped on Bike Fest Day, with several students acting as lead volunteers of specific booths. City staff Matthew Schroeder and Prashanth Dullu, both part of the Transportation Department, helped with before and after logistics, with Matthew running the entire cleanup operation that day. Vice Mayor Sheila Mohan came to open the festival and gave a warm welcome to everyone. Thank you to all who helped make this a great day for all the residents, especially to Cherie and Birgit, who made it all possible.
WBC Board members gave away free bike helmets and provided local walking and biking information to residents of all ages that stopped by our booth.
Participants were able to play bike games (see video above), make smoothies, race against each other on stationary bikes, create bike jewelry and bike art, and much more!
We met so many friendly cyclists and walkers throughout the day. We hope you were there this year and see you next time!
The information in this article is solely the opinion of the author and Walk-Bike Cupertino and does not reflect the opinions of any other organization or entity. For more information, contact WBC at info@walkbikecupertino.org.