05 Aug A Labor of Love: Cindy Okerlund Has Kids Pedaling with a Purpose

Cindy Okerlund was on her bicycle and she was at a crossroad – not the paved kind with stop signs, but the type many people encounter following retirement.

It was 2015 and she’d just ended her 27-year teaching career at Harbor Springs Public Schools. Feeling fulfilled, but exhausted, she and her husband, Matt Tamm, who also retired from teaching (Petoskey High School) knew that it was time to step out of the classroom.

They were done with traditional school-based teaching; that much was certain. They needed to rest but weren’t ready to shelve their love for working with kids.

Their own children were closing in on adulthood and their rigorous years teaching were tapering off. How would the couple fill their free time with worthwhile activities that might also generate income?

Okerlund continued to pedal her bike on a local trail, which was and continues to be a beloved years-long family pastime they’d enjoyed locally and in their summer travels.

“I had such a passion for teaching, but I was just tired,” Okerlund, who’d taught health education and biology, confided. “Let’s just say, as I reflect back on my teaching career, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again; but it’s totally OK that the traditional teaching chapter of my life has closed.”

But for her, retiring – simply no longer going to work – was the easy part. Even in her self-described, post-work “recovery year” Okerlund wrestled with doubts about the practical effect, if any, she’d had on nearly three decades worth of students.

“I left public education pretty disheartened about some things,” she said. “You wonder, ‘How much did you really touch these kids? How much impact did you have?’”

One of Okerlund’s sore spots was her perception of a rise in kids with sedentary lifestyles, worsened, she said, by the growing influence of electronic devices like smartphones, video games, and of course, television.

As time passed in her years teaching, she watched students gradually become less active and more overweight, changes seen in all ages across our country in recent decades.

She said she always tried to set a positive example for students by personally engaging in an active lifestyle. But, while her efforts may have inspired some, it didn’t stop the sedentary trend, nor the corresponding rise in Type 1 (sometimes referred to as juvenile) diabetes.

As Okerlund’s contemplative bike rides continued through her first year of retirement, the gears in her brain started clicking as she cranked out the miles.

She struck upon an idea that would allow her to continue working with kids in a physically active, educational way – but outdoors on a bike – not in a traditional classroom.

It’s known as experiential education. Educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people’s capacity to contribute to their communities.

The concept of “Kids Pedaling with a Purpose” was born. Okerlund went on to serve as the idea’s mother and midwife, not only conceiving the idea but willing it into existence using her knowledge, experience, and determination.

Impeccably organized, pragmatic, and with a keen eye for detail, Okerlund, known as Ms. O. to the kids and “Mother Bike” to her core volunteers, decided she could develop a field day for students that would see them, first and foremost, engage in significant exercise.

A lover of Northern Michigan’s vast non-motorized trail system, she envisioned a bicycling-based, experiential day outside the classroom for fourth graders in Emmet County and the city of Charlevoix.

A fleet of 30 bicycles and helmets would be needed, along with dozens of volunteers, and, crucially, financial support.

Okerlund spent a year writing the curriculum, using her wealth of education experience to ensure the program gelled with Michigan’s core educational standards. Lessons in fitness, health, science, social studies, math, map reading, native and invasive species and local Odawa history are all baked into this day-long bike riding field trip.

Pedaling with a Purpose is a two-part program with Okerlund and her core volunteer team evaluating students’ bike riding abilities in the winter and then leading them on all-day educational bike rides in the spring.

Not only would the program be educationally substantive, it also wouldn’t cost the schools a dime – except their transport of students to and from Spring Lake Park, where the biking field trips in May and early June start and finish.

Finding the Funding

For Okerlund, creating the program’s curriculum was the least of her concerns. While the Trails Council acts as the program’s fiduciary partner, it doesn’t finance Pedaling with a Purpose. Okerlund had to find her own funding.

A $10,000 grant from the Health Department of Northwest Michigan, along with $13,500 in combined grants from the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Community Foundation, and gifts from other local businesses and community people, launched the program in 2017. It ran successfully for three years, then COVID hit.

The program’s bike fleet sat idle in 2020 and 2021, but it was during this time that Walloon Lake residents John and Diane Harris stepped in. John said the Harris’ family giving plan dovetailed nicely with Kids Pedaling with a Purpose.

An avid bike and ski racer, John’s interest in physical fitness was the stimulus for two health and wellness companies he and Diane built and later sold.

“Spending time talking to Cindy, it was clear they were struggling with fundraising,” John said. “Fundraising was taking them away from the things they should be doing. We decided to step up and make a matching gift offer – enough money to make the program last five years. It’s a good program and we wanted to help it be great.”

In their businesses, John and Diane noted that their clients were mainly older people who hadn’t learned the benefits of good diet and exercise.

“Through Pedaling with a Purpose,” John, who has volunteered on the student rides and in the classroom, explained, “We’re trying to impact kids’ view of physical health by getting them on bikes. The idea of this had great appeal to us. The program’s wellness component and introducing kids to it at a young age were two major factors for us.”

News of this funding breakthrough elated Okerlund, someone in whom John and Diane have great faith.

Schools Embrace Program

At Sheridan Elementary School in Petoskey, Principal Mark Oberman said his students have fun pedaling and learning.

“Our kids really get excited about the opportunity to either hone their bicycling skills, or learn the basics of riding a bike,” Oberman said. “It is very special for them to do it in the safety of our schools, and they love being able to ride bikes in the gym! The trip itself is outstanding. Our students really enjoy the interactions with all of the volunteers and Ms. O, and the ride on the North Western State Trail to Oden is truly a highlight of their fourth grade year.”

Popular and easy though it may be for some students, Oberman said not all his fourth graders possess the same cycling skills.

“A surprisingly high number of our students have minimal experience riding bicycles, especially around our amazing local Wheelway and trails,” Oberman said.

This fact is supported by Okerlund’s own numbers.

A fastidious data collector, Okerlund compiles statistics each year so she can chart progress. Her ‘22-’23 school year stats reveal that 86.4 percent of Emmet County (and the city of Charlevoix) fourth graders (319 of 360) were able to safely ride a bike. In all, 41 students (13.6 percent) couldn’t ride a bike or struggled with it and needed accommodation to join the spring field trip.

In the winter months, Okerlund and her team of volunteers visit every school, teaching in the classroom and testing each student’s biking ability in their gyms. They then return to every school a second time to work with struggling riders.

She is quick to point out that students aren’t forced to participate. Rather, the program is offered in a “challenge by choice” format, in which kids can decide for themselves whether or not they want to do it.

And kids without bike riding skills are anything but left out. Okerlund has a variety of adaptive cycling equipment, including “tag-alongs”, tandem bikes, and a battery-powered, pedal-assist side-by-side bicycle. These options mean all students, regardless of their abilities, can participate, if they so choose.

“Kids Pedaling with a Purpose gives students the skills and confidence to explore something new,” Oberman said, “And we see so much joy in so many of our students as their abilities on the bike grow.”

The humble Okerlund, whose work on the program won her the League of Michigan Bicyclists’ 2018 Bicycle Educator Award, accepts some credit, but pours praise on her legions of loyal volunteers, most of them retired professionals who help her conduct the program.

Her list of volunteers has grown to over 100 since the program’s inception in 2017. Her core volunteers, who each have donated countless hours, include Kate Scollin, Patrick Affholter, Rob Monroe and Mike Skirvin.

“The blending of generations has really captured me,” she said. “Here you have this generation of kids who I’m really worried about. Then there are these awesome retired people. They love the outdoors. They love to bike. And they love kids. That is special.”

“I feel the Pedaling with a Purpose program is a win-win for everyone involved, the young and the young-at-heart. Its success thus far can be witnessed in both age groups.”

To learn more about Kids Pedaling with a Purpose, please visit www.trailscouncil.org.