Riding a two-wheeled bike for the first time is never easy, and for children with special needs it can be even harder.
The Hoboken Family Alliance will help children with disabilities this week at Hoboken High School when they welcome into town “Lose the Training Wheels,” a Kansas-based organization that helps children with special needs learn to ride a two-wheel bicycle.
The group claims an 80 percent success rate.
Theresa Howard is the special services director for children with special needs at the Hoboken Family Alliance, a local volunteer-driven organization.
Howard decided to pursue the event when she heard about its popularity at a seminar she attended years ago.
‘I want her to know the success of riding a bicycle.’ – Virginia Ryan, parent
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In Hoboken, there are approximately 15 children registered for the program this week.
“If we could do it this summer and have a good showing, we can make the event in Hoboken a magnet for kids around the state, possibly next year,” Howard said.
The bikes that the children ride have a device substituting for training wheels comparable to a “rolling pin.” It is attached to the back wheel and stabilizes the bike. As the week goes on, the instructors reduce the size of the rolling pin until the student can ride on two wheels unassisted.
Looked for local programs for months
New York City resident Virginia Ryan enrolled her daughter, Grace, 10, in the program this week.
“I have tried and tried and tried and gotten so close to teaching her how to ride a bike so many times,” Ryan said. “I can’t figure out why it went wrong. But the pinnacle experience, recreationally, of being a kid, is to finally ride a bike. To have her not experience it with any success would kill me. If she never rides it again, I don’t care. I want her to know the success of riding a bicycle.”
“I was really thinking I’d have to go to Denver [for a class],” Ryan said. “Lo and behold, when I visited the website, there was a new site added in Hoboken. I thought this was meant to be.”
Ryan said she was told Hoboken residents would receive priority in the program, but her daughter was soon added to the class.
“Grace was looking at the website because she had questions,” Ryan said. “She saw kids who were very timid in the beginning of the video, but by the end they were having a ball just going around in circles in the gym on their bikes.”
Matt Hampton is the executive director of “Lose the Training Wheels.”
“Most people don’t remember the day they learned to read or the day they learned to walk, because it was a process,” Hampton said. “But the day you learn to ride a bike, for everybody it’s kind of a big deal.”
Hampton said the program also helps children in their social environments.
“When you’re a kid and you have playmates that ride bikes that go to the park and you are left behind, that’s a problem,” Hampton said.
Another parent, Jane Kleinmann, said she found out about the program on a website containing events for children with special needs.
“I saw it on a list and they were really raving about it, so I decided to enroll my son,” Kleinmann said.
Local sponsors
The planning for the event began almost a year ago, Howard said, when she first started discussions with the people from “Lose the Training Wheels.”
The event is sponsored locally by many businesses, including the Hoboken Business Center. Greg Dell’Aquila of the Center decided to become involved as a sponsor.
“I liked Theresa’s program because it is not one that receives the attention that some of the more prominent programs receive, and it should,” Dell’Aquila said, speaking about all of the events that Howard runs through the Hoboken Family Alliance. “It’s a great program.”
The group “Flo on Wheels” donated a bicycle that was raffled off during the Our Lady of Grace Funfest, and Hoboken Bike organized a team for the Jersey City Ward Tour. The proceeds of both events went toward the bike camp.
Litzky PR and Coca-Cola also sponsor the event.
The cost per child is $100 for Hoboken residents and $125 for non-Hoboken residents.
The program is for children 8 years old and up. Parents interested in enrolling their child can contact Theresa Howard by July 25 at (201) 970-8796 or THoward315@gmail.com.
Ray Smith may be reached at RSmith@hudsonreporter.com