World Bicycle Day

COSHOCTON, Ohio – Coshocton County held a fun event at the fairgrounds that introduced area youth to transportation safety.

The health department along with the sheriff’s office, fire department and county prosecutor’s office were on hand raffling off bicycles, giving away child ID kits, free bicycle helmets and safety tips as kids got to ride their bikes on the smooth asphalt.

“Tuesday, is actually World Bicycle Day,” Coshocton County Public Health District Health Educator Olivia Elson said. “And every year, we get awarded bicycle helmets through the American Academy of Pediatrics and it’s through a program called ‘Put A Lid On It.’ So we have about 50 bicycle helmets from them to hand out to the youth of Coshocton County.”

This is the first year for the event that falls conveniently between the last day of school and the annual Hot Air Balloon that will be held at the fairgrounds this weekend.

“We feel it’s very important, especially the first part of June, kicking off the summer,” Coshocton County Sheriff Christopher Walters said. “You know kids are out of school now, they’re going to be out playing on their bicycles around the city. So this kind of educates them about stop signs, obeying traffic laws, just like a car. We’re going to teach them today, we’ve got stop signs set up to… to not only stop at the stop sign but you have to look both ways too and make sure there’s no cars coming before you pull out of the intersection.” 

Over 300 hotdogs, bags of chips and bottled water along with eight tubs of ice cream were ready to be handed out during the free event, which also allowed kids to meet and interact with their local first responders.