It’s the weekend! And some days it truly feels like spring. Do you have kids or know one or two between the ages of 4-16 who might like or need a new bicycle?
As part of the upcoming Celebrate Trails Day on April 24, 2021, Manchester Community Policing will be awarding 12 new bicycles to kids who reside in the City of Manchester. The cost has been covered by a combination of private donations.
To enter, kids need to create a simple bike safety poster with crayons or markers to show what bike safety in Manchester looks like to them. Write their first name and age on the poster and take a photo which can be submitted in one of four ways more fully explained in the above poster. Winners will be randomly chosen by the Manchester Police Department for each of the 12 age categories. At the Celebration in Stark Park there will be additional (limited quantities) prizes of bike lights and tune-ups provided by Queen City Bike Collective, bike helmets from Bike-Walk Alliance of NH, and water bottles from Cycle’s Etc. who have been sourced to procure the bicycles. To be eligible to win a prize, the participants must attend the trail celebration at Stark Park on Saturday, April 24, 2021.
Stark Park occupies a 30-acre tract that was once the site of the Stark Family farm in Manchester’s North End. It was one of the city’s first public parks and was dedicated in 1893.
Celebrate Trails Day nationally has been an annual spring celebration of America’s trails. This year, Manchester has a lot to celebrate with a recently revitalized Manchester Moves organization, an active Friends of Stark Park committee and a whole lot of volunteers who are working on the goal to connect bicycle and walking trail systems right here within the City of Manchester and radiating out to the North, South and West of the city.
For adults, this can be a new opportunity to revisit trails that are safe, clean and fun to use. After a full year of Covid isolation, the stories of yesteryear’s scary things in wooded places have been dispelled by teams of adults and children building bridges and clearing brush in what will now be known as Stark Park’s Walk in the Woods trails. The official ribbon-cutting day of celebration begins at 9 a.m. on April 24.
The organizers want to encourage families and kids to get involved and participate in the poster contest. There have been many helpful hands in this community transformation. There are the better-known organizations like the Manchester Police Department, Manchester Parks and Recreation, The Friends of Stark Park, The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and Manchester Moves but there are also businesses and individuals who have stepped up too. We’ll be presenting photos and stories of their work and roles in a series of upcoming articles.
Time to get started on those posters!
