'It saves on gas money'

—Photo by ERIC PLUMMER

Four Washington Elementary School staff members rode their bikes to work Wednesday as part of Bike to Work/School Day. From left to right: Tom Prez, Dodi Sykes, Marlene Rorke and Sally Loveless. Rorke rode her bike across the Long Bridge on a brisk, overcast morning.

bike week

By ERIC PLUMMER

Sports editor

SANDPOINT — If a co-worker or fellow student had a few beads of sweat on the forehead this morning, or was breathing a little more heavy than usual, there was a very good reason for it.

Overcast skies, a very un-June-like frigid breeze and light rain were not enough to keep many hearty Sandpoint area folks from participating in the Bike to Work/School Day on Wednesday. The event is part of the first-ever Sandpoint Bike Week 2008, and bike racks at local schools and business were overflowing with use.

Local schools seemed to have the most success, with a gaudy 73 cyclists receiving free water bottles at Farmin-Stidwell, 36 at Washington Elementary, 31 at Sandpoint Middle School and 18 at Kootenai Elementary. Washington principal Marlene Rorke, who also rode her bike to school, had no problem lauding the benefits of biking to school.

“Fresh air, exercise and their brains are ready for learning,” said Rorke of the students who biked. “Their endorphins are moving, they’re ready to learn.”

Two Sandpoint Middle School students rode from the Samuels area, leaving around 6 a.m. and making it to school with time to burn.

SHS student Josh Keil rode more than 45 minutes from his home outside of Sagle, wasting no time in pointing out the best part of the journey.

“Going down the hills,” he said of the cold morning ride. “Either way I go I’m going to hit a bunch of hills.”

SMS vice principal Deb McShane said students there had put up posters, taken a survey and were hyped for the event, adding that the poor weather might have stifled their turnout somewhat. The fire department also put on a bike rodeo for the SMS students, which ran during P.E. and featured safety courses and a popular obstacle course. Some of the kids even stashed their bikes in teacher’s rooms.

Local businesses also got into the act, led by the new Tango Cafe in the Sandpoint Center. Almost every employee there rode to work on Wednesday, which wasn’t out of the ordinary, including owner Barney Ballard, who encourages his employees to ride to work.

“We’d rather have parking space used by consumers,” explained Ballard. “It’s the responsibility of the downtown business owners to make sure employees don’t use prime parking space.”

Ben Tate, who owns Finan McDonald Clothing on First St., echoed the exact same sentiments.

“Down in this part of town there is no parking,” said Tate, noting that three of his eight employees rode to work on Wednesday. “It has a lot to do with how far out you live north of town.”

The price of gas drove many to work, including Doug Lutz of U.S. Bank, one of two employees there who ride to work regularly. Panhandle State Bank had two employees participate, and Wells Fargo one. The Daily Bee had five employees bike to work, including editor Caroline Lobsinger, who thought about calling it off in the blustery morning, but decided to keep a promise she had made to fellow employees.

Liz Thornton-Ziegler, who works at Tango Cafe and bikes regularly, sounded a familiar refrain among people tired of escalating fuel costs who are turning to the bicycle.

“It saves on gas money,” she said, noting her husband has to drive a truck to work. “It would be really tight if we had another car.”

Organizers of the event hope that is spurs people to start doing it more often, and eventually making it routine.