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Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:18:11
Jim DeCecco
We are working with the Safe Routes program. We had a, a parent step up, grandparents step up. She had her grandkids going to the school. And so she was part of the, this new Safe Routes program. I'm back in a different position. I'm not a teacher driving things anymore. I'm. I'm a helper, and she's driving things.
00:00:18:11 - 00:00:32:18
Jim DeCecco
And so, you know, last year, I like. You know what? Let's bring some of that magic back to Oceana. She contacted Bikes Lo County, and so we got a bike rodeo on on a Sunday 200 people showed up.
00:00:32:21 - 00:01:02:08
John Simmerman
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Active Towns channel. My name is John Simmerman, and that is Jim DeCecco, from the San Luis Obispo County area of Pismo Beach and Oceano. And we're going to be talking about, a legacy project that he has been working on for quite some time of getting the youth in the Oceano area, out on bikes, teaching bike safety skills and just really encouraging them to be able to get around their towns.
00:01:02:11 - 00:01:20:27
John Simmerman
you know, safely again, more frequently and more often, really encouraging empowerment of mobility for these youngsters, and going to get ice cream, which is a lot of fun. So let's get right to it with Jim.
00:01:21:00 - 00:01:25:17
John Simmerman
Jim DeCecco so wonderful to have you on the Active Towns podcast. Welcome.
00:01:25:19 - 00:01:27:12
Jim DeCecco
It's great to be here.
00:01:27:15 - 00:01:33:17
John Simmerman
Jim. I love having my guests just, say a few words about themselves. So who is Jim?
00:01:33:19 - 00:01:54:21
Jim DeCecco
let's start at the beginning. I went to San Jose State University, majored in environmental education, received a teaching credential from there. So I couldn't find a jobs back in the day. So I went up to Chico to work on my masters. A year later, got an interview at Oceana Elementary School. The principal, then Phil Gallegos, great guy.
00:01:54:24 - 00:02:19:00
Jim DeCecco
And I've gone ahead and hiring me. Moved to Pismo Beach, taught at Oceana Elementary School for 34 years. Then I got older, retired, did everything you're supposed to do in retirement. You know, I ran every day by day, every day, surfed every day, wander the Andalusia for about two months, came back, got bored, and then, I went back to went back to work.
00:02:19:06 - 00:02:30:21
Jim DeCecco
Now I'm a paraprofessional. Slash teacher's aide, at Oceana Elementary School on a special day class working with special needs students. So that's kind of my story.
00:02:30:24 - 00:02:55:13
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it, and we've got the map here. And so we've got Oceano Elementary School here. And, you mentioned Pismo Beach. Pismo beach is just, you know, due north of there along the coast. And yeah, as you mentioned, you were, up in the Chico area. So you were up north, not far from where I grew up, which was in Lincoln, California.
00:02:55:15 - 00:03:13:28
John Simmerman
and so many of my, you know, friends right there I was in Lincoln, and you went on up to to Chico, a little bit further north there. Boom. And. Yeah, that's that's fantastic. you had to pinch yourself. What year was that when you went to to Pismo.
00:03:14:01 - 00:03:25:08
Jim DeCecco
A I well, I was in Chico for 82, 83 and then I got hired 83 school year, 83, 84 down at, Oceana elementary schools.
00:03:25:10 - 00:03:34:27
John Simmerman
How big is Oceana? And in that general region there? along the coast, not including San Luis Obispo.
00:03:35:00 - 00:03:52:01
Jim DeCecco
So how we're not kind of known as the Five Cities area of Pismo Beach, Arroyo Grande de Nipomo, Avalon and Oceana is, unincorporated area in San Luis Obispo County. and we would call it South County. So.
00:03:52:04 - 00:03:59:27
John Simmerman
Okay. And about how many residents would you say is, in that area just to give a, like a bearing to folks.
00:04:00:00 - 00:04:15:04
Jim DeCecco
And the Five Cities area, probably close to probably around 40,000, maybe. And Oceana itself is probably it's pretty it's pretty dense. area is probably about, 4 or 5000 people.
00:04:15:07 - 00:04:40:03
John Simmerman
Yeah. And just to again, give folks, a bearing on screen here we have the map and, just again, due north a little bit further inland, we have, San Luis Obispo and of course, we have the Cal Poly State University right there. And, and what the area that we're talking about in Oceana is, of course, the South County area of San Luis Obispo County.
00:04:40:06 - 00:04:54:03
Jim DeCecco
Sure. And one of the things is, you know, San Luis Obispo being so close, have we're able my wife and I are able to go ahead and ride into town for entertainment and things like that. And actually, I received finished my master's at, at Cal Poly. So.
00:04:54:05 - 00:05:12:02
John Simmerman
Oh you did. Oh, fantastic. Okay. So excellent. And then I've got, you know, family and friends, you know, down here in the Santa Barbara area. So I tend to spend some time down there where there's lots of little stars and hearts and all that kind of good stuff. So, I'm gonna have to come visit you.
00:05:12:04 - 00:05:16:05
John Simmerman
one of my, my many trips to, to Santa Barbara.
00:05:16:07 - 00:05:19:00
Jim DeCecco
you're always welcome here. Love to have you.
00:05:19:03 - 00:05:37:22
John Simmerman
Fantastic. Well, Jim, you know, one of the cool things that, you sent over is actually, a YouTube video which tells a little bit of the story, maybe not the whole story, but in a very, very short period of time, I think it's only, like two minutes. it gives a little bit of your story and your background.
00:05:37:24 - 00:05:40:24
John Simmerman
I'd love to play this video. I. Would that be okay?
00:05:40:26 - 00:06:04:16
Jim DeCecco
Sounds great. Hey, my name is Jim Chacko and I'm a long time teacher at Oceano Elementary School, which is just right up the way. my story kind of starts like this, is that we had a morning exercise program in which 300 students walk or run on the playground, and so it was my job to go ahead and monitor, that exercise program.
00:06:04:16 - 00:06:26:08
Jim DeCecco
And one day I was, looking down the, the way as far as across the playground, I saw an ambulance, and, my heart just dropped because I knew what had happened. It's like one of our students had been probably injured on their way to school. I knew the student well. I was their basketball coach. I knew her aunts and uncles and things like that.
00:06:26:08 - 00:06:46:29
Jim DeCecco
And so I ended up going ahead and talking to the aunt, and I knew that they had some health issues. So maybe a little bit more difficult for them to go ahead and drive, Maria to school. And so I to say, how about if I come by and, and pick her up every day, as it turns out that that was a really good opportunity for young Maria because she got the opportunity to ride to school.
00:06:46:29 - 00:06:48:04
Jim DeCecco
But it was a good opportunity.
00:06:48:04 - 00:06:49:12
John Simmerman
For me, too.
00:06:49:15 - 00:07:10:29
Jim DeCecco
You know, it was like the best half mile or mile of my day every day. being able to go ahead and ride with, you know, student talking about what's happening during the day and what's happening in our life and how school's going and how's basketball going and what she's thinking and things like that. And so, that continued on for like six months till the end of the school year.
00:07:11:02 - 00:07:37:10
Jim DeCecco
And I look back on, I say, you know what? That was actually a really good opportunity for me to go ahead and connect, reach out and, and show the community that the staff of Oceana cares about their students. The, the one thing I want to say is that my philosophy, as far as biking goes, our streets should be designed for people of eight and eight and everybody in between.
00:07:37:10 - 00:08:00:07
Jim DeCecco
So if an eight year old can't ride their bike to school, then our streets aren't designed in a proper manner and so a dream dream projects is, is that I would like to see everybody be able to hop on their bike and ride to school without going ahead and fearing for their safety.
00:08:00:09 - 00:08:24:23
John Simmerman
Or gym, you know, why don't you, you know, sort of respond a little bit to that video that was that was a really good overview, I think, and will get us into a little bit more of the story, you know, be behind, you know, what got you engaged with and passionate about integrating the bike, as part of your activities there at Oceana.
00:08:24:26 - 00:08:53:11
Jim DeCecco
Now, like the video said, we at Oceana go ahead and care about a healthy, active lifestyles. And so part of it was we have a walking program before school. So as soon as a Tuesday hit campus, I'm out there with music and concert up and and they start walking, running around the around the playground in circles. But part of activity is encouraging students to walk and bike to school, which we'll probably talk about later.
00:08:53:13 - 00:09:20:18
Jim DeCecco
It was unfortunate, but as a student that I knew quite well, you know, end up getting hit, going to, you know, riding her bike to school, fortunately, wasn't like a a huge accident. somebody came out of an alleyway, nudged her, and then, you know, I ended up going to the actually Guardians at the time and saying, hey, listen, I know you guys may have, you know, a little bit of a trouble going and getting her school, let's say, driving her.
00:09:20:18 - 00:09:40:12
Jim DeCecco
And and so I just went to her house every day, picked her up on my bike, as I rode my bike, I still ride my bike to school every day. And, it was a great opportunity for, for for me to go ahead, just chat her up. You know, riding the school and and riding her home.
00:09:40:14 - 00:09:49:09
Jim DeCecco
there was, like, the best, my best ten minutes of my day. So, you know, it wasn't great that she was hit by it. It was. It was a pretty good opportunity for me.
00:09:49:12 - 00:10:00:05
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And I, I think I see your bike right here in the background right there. I recognize the, the distinctive, handlebars there.
00:10:00:08 - 00:10:17:00
Jim DeCecco
Oh, sure. And I end up getting that in, I rode my bike from Stuttgart to Amsterdam and that was the one I bought in Stuttgart. And then I had it shipped home and been riding it ever since. So that's saved me a lot of, a lot of money over the years rather than driving to school.
00:10:17:03 - 00:10:42:01
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Now, in the video you referenced, you know, a term that we use, you know, eight to 80 or 8 and 80, in everyone in between, or I also just, you know, shorten it by saying all ages and abilities because then it's really, truly inclusive. because then it's really. Yeah. I mean, who's not included in all ages and abilities.
00:10:42:03 - 00:10:43:10
Jim DeCecco
So I agree.
00:10:43:13 - 00:11:11:02
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And so I, I suspect that, you know, a little bit of your, your adventures that you have, you just mentioned riding from Stuttgart to to Amsterdam experiencing, you know, especially in the Netherlands, experiencing what it's like to ride in the Netherlands probably was a bit of a mind shift for you in terms of what it means to have a place that's safe and inviting for all ages and abilities.
00:11:11:04 - 00:11:31:03
Jim DeCecco
Oh for sure. And that was just one of the beginning adventures of being able to go over there and ride. My wife and I have been over to Europe, then lucky to go over to Europe, a few times because of the fact I get the summers off and and, and we end up going ahead and doing a lot of, like, urban riding and I would say Copenhagen.
00:11:31:04 - 00:11:50:05
Jim DeCecco
We just took a trip a couple years ago doing a Clarence Ackerson tour through various, various street film cities and things like that. And so, yeah, always an eye opening, but it's inspiring to go ahead and bring some of that back, or at least try to bring some of that back to our small area of the world.
00:11:50:07 - 00:12:10:05
John Simmerman
Yeah. That's funny. you know, Clarence, of course, is a good friend, and he he's always delighted to hear that people are inspired from his videos that he produced, to to go over and explore, what were some of the cities that you hit when you were over there exploring on the, the Clarence Nickerson Streets Films, tour?
00:12:10:07 - 00:12:45:27
Jim DeCecco
we started off and, Copenhagen. You have to do that. Do you remember at that time, you know, Norris Airlines is flying people over there for fairly cheap, so that was always nice. Norwegian, you know, former Norwegian airlines. So they, they fly into Copenhagen, you know, a week there, you know, week and grown again. We can do track, we can delve, we can get and then we finish it off and and literally on a, I don't think I've films been made by street films hasn't made one on Ljubljana yet, but they could it was we didn't bike there, but it's very bikeable city.
00:12:45:27 - 00:12:49:17
Jim DeCecco
So we were lucky and had a ton of fun. It was great.
00:12:49:19 - 00:13:10:14
John Simmerman
Yeah. And Ljubljana just recently, a couple of years ago, hosted the Velocity Conference, the, the big international conference. And this year, of course, is in Ghent. And so will be in Belgium for, for that. And I will actually be, making my pilgrimage there and Clarence will also be there. So you both be there at the same time.
00:13:10:16 - 00:13:13:14
Jim DeCecco
Great city. Had a great time again.
00:13:13:16 - 00:13:52:04
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. So there's a bit of inspiration here. So you were inspired to do something there in your community and, you know, with the platform of, of the school and of the kids in wanting to get to, you know, places safer and, and, and basically, the other thing that you mentioned, too, was that there is an orientation at the school of being able to encourage physical activity and I want to pull out this article that you sent my way, because I think this is this is part of it.
00:13:52:04 - 00:14:29:03
John Simmerman
This has something to to do with, a little bit of what you're talking about here. One of the articles that you sent over was my my, my, writing is my Ritalin and, and talked a little bit about how it helps with certain cognitive things and really helps a great deal with children. and of course, the great book Spark by John Rady talks, in in length about the science behind physical activity and how that really helps encourage, and improve, you know, school ability and with, with children.
00:14:29:05 - 00:14:41:06
John Simmerman
So is that part of the reason why you have these activities, these, the these exercise programs for kids? and I believe you do it even before school each and every day. Is that correct?
00:14:41:09 - 00:15:04:13
Jim DeCecco
Yeah. I mean, you know, part of it's like, if if they're exercising, everybody's a winner. Yeah. as far as we're concerned. And so, yeah, you're right. I mean, the whole thing started back in 2007 when, you know, I had a number of students riding their bikes to, to school for whatever reason. You know, every year there is something else could be marbles trading Pokemon cards.
00:15:04:13 - 00:15:26:23
Jim DeCecco
But this year was riding, was riding a bike. And so, you know, I ended up having, like ten bikes in the classroom. I think you have a picture of that before, before this one. And that's just like six bikes in the classroom. So let alone 10 or 15. And they asked me, hey, can we go ahead and and park our bikes in your in the classroom?
00:15:26:23 - 00:15:44:13
Jim DeCecco
I'm like, oh. You park your bike in the classroom. So I couldn't be much of it could be a hypocrite. So I let them do that. And so it was it was pretty quick after that that, you know, I contacted the principal and said, hey, hey, can we have bike racks? Because we had have those taken out like a decade before?
00:15:44:13 - 00:16:11:06
Jim DeCecco
And that was kind of the start of the whole thing. What happened was to that year that the county had done a study determine the health of various communities in San Luis Obispo County, and Oceana was flagged for having, you know, kind of unhealthy tendencies. And so, you know, we were meeting at the school to go think about ways we could as a school, go ahead and make the community a little bit healthier.
00:16:11:09 - 00:16:39:06
Jim DeCecco
And so we ended up going ahead talking about getting students to move, you know, as part of, a healthy environment. And so, you know, the county came in Safe Routes program slash ride share at the time gave us a little bit of seed money to where we could use it for incentives, and we ended up going ahead and taking students because they are sixth graders at the time to we said we can show them to their local middle school because they're going to be leaving me, and then they're going to be going on a middle school.
00:16:39:06 - 00:17:01:17
Jim DeCecco
And so now we end up riding with those students after school to the middle schools and stuff for ice cream on the way. And it was it was so positive and so overwhelming that the students said, hey, can we do this more? And so that was born. The bike policy, because everybody wanted to go ahead. and we have 460 students.
00:17:01:23 - 00:17:20:29
Jim DeCecco
A large portion of them want to go ahead and ride for ice cream after school. And, and so we did. And as you can see right here on the, there's a little bit of a map that, you know, from Oceana down in the lower left hand corner to ice cream and in the upper right hand corner, but that was 3.5 miles away.
00:17:21:01 - 00:17:41:18
Jim DeCecco
That's a pretty good ride for bikes that have rusty chains and their single speed and their 20 inchers. And so, that was born the, the bike policy. And we continued on with that. And as a matter of fact, the bike policy was, got so big that the ice cream shop asked us not to bring in so many people.
00:17:41:18 - 00:18:05:21
Jim DeCecco
I mean, because we were rolling in there at the beginning of the school year with 70 students and we, And what are you going to do? You staff up for 70, you know, for 70 people, and then they're sitting around. So we had to break the bike policy up into boys rides and girls rides. And, and the girls really liked that because the boys are, I'm a male, we tend not to think very much ahead.
00:18:05:21 - 00:18:24:11
Jim DeCecco
And so, you know, they would do, you know, some things, some crazy things. They'd hit the deck and the girls just were able to get away. And so we're go. We're riding for ice cream, you know, twice a month, once with the boys and once with the girls. And I was lucky enough to have a colleague and Chrysler who's in the picture right there.
00:18:24:14 - 00:18:44:09
Jim DeCecco
Want to go ahead and do this? She's amazing. And we had Diana, our our new yard supervisor and crosswalk lady. She want to do it too. And and so we did. We rode for ice cream twice a month. And that's what the bike policy was in. You know, we took over the downtown. I mean it's like that's a that's a lot of bikes for those listening.
00:18:44:10 - 00:19:06:03
Jim DeCecco
This park down from the ice ice cream shop and people in, you know, some people complained about that, look at all these bikes. You're taking up parking spots. But if we were to go ahead and come their individual cars, we would take over the whole downtown with cars. So taking up 4 or 5 parking spots, you can see that bikes take up a whole lot less space than, than a vehicle does.
00:19:06:03 - 00:19:22:03
John Simmerman
So yeah, it's such a great, great point, Jim. I'm glad. I'll jump in and and just chuckle about that comment of you're taking up all the parking spots. It's like, yeah, every one of those bikes is a customer, right?
00:19:22:03 - 00:19:34:19
Jim DeCecco
Yeah. Oh yeah. They they definitely enjoyed it when we, when we came there with, you know, hard working parents and all gave a little bit of money to the kids. And so they were, they were more than willing to spend it. So yeah.
00:19:34:22 - 00:19:58:13
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it. So, you know, here in the United States and in many cities around the globe, you know, we have these International Walk to School Day, International Bike to School Day, these types of events to try to increase awareness about, you know, being able to use active mobility once again to be able to get to school.
00:19:58:13 - 00:20:22:24
John Simmerman
I mean, back in the old days, you know, we're both, you gray hair here, back in the old days, you know, getting getting to school, you know, is very common to actually get to school by walking and biking. But now it's it's a rarity, in many locations, in a smaller environment, such as yours, in, in the Oceano, area.
00:20:22:26 - 00:20:32:26
John Simmerman
What what's it like in terms of the number of kids able to be able to walk and bike to school? Is it a pretty decent percentage compared to a lot of places in North America?
00:20:32:29 - 00:20:51:25
Jim DeCecco
Well, we started, you know, like I said, we had seed money from the, local county organizations. So we had monthly bike to school days and we had monthly walk to school day. So we actually separated a lot of schools and just do like a walk and roll day, like once or twice a year with the internationals in conjunction with the international days.
00:20:51:27 - 00:21:14:12
Jim DeCecco
and we, you know, we decided that we were going to go ahead and try to build some of this stuff up. And at by the time, you know, over a number of years, you know, we're going ahead and having like 55% of our students were either walking or biking, most of them walking, because, as I said, it was it's kind of a dense area with apartment buildings and houses and things like that.
00:21:14:12 - 00:21:34:05
Jim DeCecco
But on the way, on a national average, what's it like, 25%? And we are getting like close to 55% as we made this push, in order to incentivize students to go ahead and be more active. And they enjoyed it too. And that was a that's whole point. Biking and walking are fun and safe activities. Come join us.
00:21:34:07 - 00:22:06:14
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And you know, one of the biggest challenges, in North America, of course, is when we sort of lost that muscle, that habit of walking and biking to school, kind of along with that goes some of the skills associated with it. And I'm looking at an image on screen here of what looks like, you know, the typical sort of bike education or bike rodeo type of scenario, out on the school blacktop or playground?
00:22:06:17 - 00:22:26:13
John Simmerman
I used to teach bike ed, for fourth graders, in Hawaii Island. and so, I would actually show up to each elementary school with a van full of bikes and, you know, would, you know, go through and teach the, the skills, you know, course and all that. Talk a little bit about what we see on image here.
00:22:26:13 - 00:22:31:08
John Simmerman
You know, for the viewing audience as well as the listening audience.
00:22:31:10 - 00:22:50:20
Jim DeCecco
Well, we found out pretty quick, you know, early on is that we end up going ahead and rolling out of rolling out ocean of 3.5 miles away as far as, the bicycle shop that. Hey, maybe we need to go ahead and train them because every you can see this in adults. Everybody learns how to ride a bike, but do they really learn the rules of the road?
00:22:50:20 - 00:23:13:19
Jim DeCecco
And we said no. We found out pretty quick. And so we kind of contacted Bike Slow County, which is everything bicycle in San Luis Obispo County. And they came out and they did some bike rodeo activities. And on top of that, we have our had at the time as a PE teacher, state California State PE teacher of the year, Kim Schroeder.
00:23:13:19 - 00:23:33:28
Jim DeCecco
And and I came to her and I said, you know, we have all these bikes, bike to school day. Can you go ahead and incorporate bikes into your PE curriculum? And she's a she was state teacher of the year for a reason because she said yes. And so, you know, we have like 40 or 50 bikes out there on the playground.
00:23:34:06 - 00:24:02:08
Jim DeCecco
And rather than running the mile that day, the students got it got an opportunity like once a month or so to go ahead and ride around campus in a safe manner, learning bike safety and how to go ahead and conduct yourself on a bike. So yeah, we we invested a little bit of time in order to go ahead and train students up because you can see it out on the out on the streets and people riding the wrong way, or they're riding on sidewalks and those are adults.
00:24:02:08 - 00:24:08:18
Jim DeCecco
So our students, who are much better behaved out there on the streets than most typical adult that rides around.
00:24:08:18 - 00:24:33:16
John Simmerman
So yeah. And I went ahead and pulled up the, the website for bike, SLO County, so that folks can see that and head on over to that website and check out their activities again, that's, you know, similar to the context of of what I was doing as I was doing the bike ed program in, in, under the umbrella of our local nonprofit that we had on Hawai'i Island.
00:24:33:18 - 00:25:08:15
John Simmerman
And so that was, a very, you know, gratifying thing to do. And so I absolutely loved doing that. I think back to, to to that era and all the kids that went through and graduated through that bike skills class that I did. And not only did we talk a little bit about the rules of the road, but we really made sure that they knew how, especially at that fourth grade level you can appreciate this is making sure that they had the skills to be able to, start and stop appropriately, to be able to, you know, turn and avoid objects and things of that nature.
00:25:08:15 - 00:25:33:27
John Simmerman
So it wasn't it wasn't just, you know, quote unquote rules of the road. We'll see some more photos in here in terms of like things that that schools can do and communities can do to help, you know, enforce, reinforce and enhance those skills as bike handling skills. We also ended up finding that a certain percentage of kids in every single class would not even know how to ride a bike.
00:25:33:29 - 00:25:52:26
John Simmerman
they might not even have a bike in, in, in, at their home. And so we also would, would have at least 1 or 2 instructors, as part of my fleet of instructors that would deploy to each school available to be able to actually teach a child how to to ride a bike, which was wonderful because you've got a small bike.
00:25:52:26 - 00:26:04:13
John Simmerman
We take the pedals off, it becomes a balanced bike. You can get them, you know, gliding, and once they have that glide, then it's, you know, pretty fast that you can get them to, to the point of being able to pedal.
00:26:04:15 - 00:26:07:11
Jim DeCecco
Now that's awesome.
00:26:07:14 - 00:26:19:04
John Simmerman
Yeah, it's good stuff. So we started out here, we're talking about, you know, sort of this environment. And we continue to to roll. We continue to expand. Now this looks like a really big group.
00:26:19:06 - 00:26:41:20
Jim DeCecco
Yeah I yeah I you know, I was on vacation somewhere and I saw this advertisement for injured or injured veterans. They were going to be riding from San Francisco to LA. It was called Road to Recovery at that hour. Yeah, it was road to recovery at the time. Director John Word and and so I ended up going ahead and contacting them because they're riding from San Francisco to LA.
00:26:41:21 - 00:27:01:02
Jim DeCecco
Oceana was like two blocks away from highway one along the coast. And, and so I end up asking him when he was going to come by and they were actually staying in Pismo Beach, so they were going to be riding by during the school day. And I thought, you know, go ahead and take my take my class down there just to cheer for these injured or injured veterans.
00:27:01:02 - 00:27:28:15
Jim DeCecco
I mean, this was when they were coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq. And so, you know, good. I thought they did go ahead and have they'd be appreciated a nice little bump to go ahead and do this. So I brought it to the then principal, Tom Butler. some guy said yes to everything super enthusiastic. I said, hey, can I bring my class down there to cheer for these guys and like, and Butler Fashion, he's all like, why do you just get to do it?
00:27:28:15 - 00:28:02:03
Jim DeCecco
Let's bring the whole school down there. So and so that's why that's what we did. Contacted the sheriff's department, highway patrol. They walked us down there. We closed up highway one. We cheered for them as a as a pass by our school. And then later on, because we did that for a number of years. Is it change to we are project Hero and like kind of wearing this shirt right now, but, I asked if our policy could go ahead and and ride with them, and they said that would be great to go ahead and have students ride with us.
00:28:02:03 - 00:28:26:09
Jim DeCecco
And so the policy would take off with, yeah, a couple miles north of the school, as a as they were riding down from their hotels in Pismo, they met up with us and we'd ride up over the railroad tracks and come down in Oceana. And you can see how powerful those images are. I mean, they there be like, there's 400 students waiting, waiting for everybody at the bottom of the hill and Oceana.
00:28:26:12 - 00:28:46:14
Jim DeCecco
And I'll tell you one thing, I was talking to an injured veteran and he said, one time, you know, some of these guys and gals would ride on the other side of the street because they didn't want the students to see them crying because it was so overwhelmingly powerful. That was the welcome home that a lot of those, a lot of those people didn't get.
00:28:46:14 - 00:28:56:23
Jim DeCecco
So, steer students and injured, injured veterans. I always said this was like the best thing that we did all year was go ahead and partner up with these people. So it was awesome.
00:28:56:25 - 00:29:39:23
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love it, I love it. What an encouraging, you know, story to share. And yeah, I mean, gotta be just so powerful, you know, for the kids to experience that. I mean, and when you look at the faces of just how excited they are to be riding and cycling with them and in such a, you know, a big group, too, when you see the numbers, you know, rolling down the street, it brings a different level of context and power, you know, to the kids to be able to realize just, you know, how special it is, being able to get out on your bike, be able to do something as simple as go
00:29:39:23 - 00:29:53:06
John Simmerman
get an ice cream. but also so empowering, you know, being able to get from place to place, even for somebody who's, mobility, whose physical abilities may be, you know, somewhat altered from what they were before.
00:29:53:09 - 00:30:10:08
Jim DeCecco
And I'll tell you what it's like. Rarely does a former student come back and say, hey, man, you're I remember that math lesson that you did. Yeah, but but they'll come back and say, hey, remember when we rode with the veterans or hey, remember when we end up going head riding for ice cream? So those memories last a lifetime.
00:30:10:10 - 00:30:15:28
Jim DeCecco
unfortunately, my last spelling lesson probably didn't. So.
00:30:16:00 - 00:30:32:00
John Simmerman
so on screen now, we have a little bit more of a, I would say a more well defined, piece of infrastructure out here on the blacktop. What are we looking at?
00:30:32:03 - 00:30:56:10
Jim DeCecco
How we're looking at opportunities come, you know, come our way. So actually, we were able to ride in a local parade. And so what you're looking at now is, you know, students end up going out and coming before on a Saturday, early in the morning, decorate their bikes. And then because we have this infrastructure, which I'll go ahead and talk about in a second, is that we practice riding a straight line because, you know, we're in a parade, we're not in a race.
00:30:56:10 - 00:31:19:03
Jim DeCecco
And so, this was us just preparing for the local Grover Beach Christmas parade. and those are just opportunities we took in order to get students on bikes. So far as the infrastructure that you were just pointing to. And that's a that's another interesting story. And the power of saying, yeah. So if there's any administrators out there, you know, I, I've been lucky to have like a lot of really good principals.
00:31:19:06 - 00:31:38:07
Jim DeCecco
And the principal I had at the time, Ron Walton, helped. Well, he's the one that actually end up going ahead and getting this infrastructure. And we were going to fly into Copenhagen and and people down the street, Glazers, you know, you know, their daughter Meredith, and they're all like, hey, you know, you got to go ahead and meet this, this one guy.
00:31:38:07 - 00:32:00:28
Jim DeCecco
If you're going to go ride bikes over there, it's, Michael, Covell Anderson. And so they set it up to where we met Michael or Michael. And like ten minutes into the conversation and Copenhagen's all. Why are we here now? I had to explain to them about the whole Meredith Glazer and and things like that because he actually had worked with there in that conversation.
00:32:00:28 - 00:32:23:12
Jim DeCecco
He, you know, we were talking about biking. You saw why you should go ahead and check out the traffic garden in Copenhagen, which would be the next slide. And, they had in Copenhagen, they have this mock up of, of a street in Copenhagen, you know, for, for kindergartners or young people who are parents who can come and, and go ahead and have, a picnic or whatever, and then the kids can go ahead and ride.
00:32:23:14 - 00:32:49:10
Jim DeCecco
A mock up of the street includes separated bike lanes and everything else for that to a year later. So we were in, the incubator and we went to, less less busy. I think that that's how you go ahead and do it. And we saw in the park, which would be the next slide. this cycle training course, I got like, yeah, man, sit in back of my head from meeting Mr. Anderson.
00:32:49:12 - 00:33:10:28
Jim DeCecco
Just go like, yeah, we could do something like that on our playground because every playground needs to be resurfaced, which means you have to repaint it and you have to put lines on it for basketball courts and hopscotch and such. And so I contact I took a picture of that Senator, our great principal, Ron Wall. And at the time, by the time I got home, he had facilities ready to go.
00:33:10:28 - 00:33:30:15
Jim DeCecco
We had it designed by Dan River bike, Slow County and Sarah Sanders from Ride Share, who was a traffic engineer. So she knew how to do things. And a month in the school, they learned it, painted it up, and then MPR got a whole of the story. I and I called it the only bike training course west of the Mississippi.
00:33:30:18 - 00:33:53:15
Jim DeCecco
She corrected me and she said, you know, now there's three of them. They're all in like Northern California. And she gave me some links to it, and I looked at theirs and I said, oh, okay, I'll change that reference. The best bike, cycle training course, you know, west of the Mississippi. And so we were able, because of Mr. Walton, to go ahead and get this, get this done.
00:33:53:15 - 00:34:15:03
Jim DeCecco
And so that way, Kim Strode could go ahead, bike to school days. We can go ahead and use this cycle training course to go ahead and train students. I usually work like six days a week, so I was always at school on weekends, and I pop my head out the door and I'd see like parents, you know, with their kids riding on this course, you know, on weekends.
00:34:15:05 - 00:34:40:09
Jim DeCecco
And then the kindergarten teacher would bring her class out and practice how to cross the street, looking both ways and things like that. Oh, it it was definitely well used. so you'll see later on is that the schools change. They've, they have since, kind of put buildings on top of our best, best cycle training course west of the Mississippi.
00:34:40:11 - 00:34:48:19
Jim DeCecco
but we but they incorporated another one into a us kind of a smaller version. So we still have we still have something on at Oceana.
00:34:48:21 - 00:35:25:10
John Simmerman
Yeah. You know what's interesting too. And and I have some, some interesting, probably counterintuitive thoughts about the these traffic gardens, these, you know, facilities that we put, in place out on, on, on, the school property and etc.. One of the problems that I have with them is that it kind of, treats the environment that the kids are riding on and treats them as if they are cars, you know, as drivers.
00:35:25:13 - 00:35:59:08
John Simmerman
And it which kind of reinforces an outdated sort of perspective of vehicular cycling, which those skills have a place. I was trained as a vehicular cyclist from, you know, League, American bicyclist from way back in the day. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Sure. But really, what I love about this mock up of the, the Copenhagen example here is what you see is that they've actually done a mock up of what conditions are like out in their environment.
00:35:59:08 - 00:36:30:24
John Simmerman
In other words, we see that there is the curb separated, you know, cycle path. There's the sidewalk off to the side. And then there's the, the driving lane. And, and that's really one of the things that I would love to see us embrace more in North America when we are putting together, you know, these types of environments for the kids is rather than, you know, create an environment that just sort of works on bike handling skills.
00:36:30:24 - 00:37:07:03
John Simmerman
You know, can you, can you ride in a straight line? Can you start, can you stop? but but also start to get us into a position where we're mimicking especially, you know, for cities that are doing a good job of building out their bike lanes, getting protected and separated infrastructure, those all ages and abilities, facilities that you and I were talking about earlier, and incorporating that into the environment, you know, for the kids, I realize that that's like a dream type of situation.
00:37:07:06 - 00:37:29:16
John Simmerman
It's like the space isn't always there. And so we we're we're, you know, clamoring to do it. But the perfectionist that I am and as a behaviorist, I'm also like looking at ways where we can shape human behavior. And part of the one of the things that we can do is try to, to get closer to, you know, that real condition.
00:37:29:16 - 00:37:51:24
John Simmerman
And if this is the this is where we want to go and what we want to see out on our streets and in our communities, we could be we could be training the next generation of street designers to say, well, heck, you know, we had that in, in, in elementary school. Why can't we have that in our streets now and start designing this level of infrastructure?
00:37:51:27 - 00:38:06:03
Jim DeCecco
I would say this is that if we could send every traffic engineer over to even just to look at a traffic garden in Copenhagen, that was probably be well worth the money being spent in order to go ahead and do that. So yeah.
00:38:06:06 - 00:38:26:27
John Simmerman
And you mentioned, the Netherlands and I spend a fair amount of time over there. And yes, I'll see, doctor Meredith Glaser I'll save her. That's just a, in a couple of months. they're in Ghent at the velocity conference. She will be attending. And so I, but in the Netherlands, they actually use their streets.
00:38:26:27 - 00:39:02:18
John Simmerman
Their, their environment out there is part of the training ground for the kids. And so once they get to 11 and 12 years old, they need to have show proficiency, out there on the streets and, you'll, you'll see the instructors out there and you'll see all the kids out there going through and getting, you know, basically certifying that they, in fact, have the skills to be able to get around to, their meaningful destinations under their own power so that the parents are no longer, you know, considered having to escort them.
00:39:02:21 - 00:39:18:12
John Simmerman
And so it's it's one of the levels of, of, I think adulthood, you know, or young pre adulthood because we're talking 11 and 12 years old that they can demonstrate those and they do them out in the streets and out on the the cycle paths, which are all ages and abilities.
00:39:18:14 - 00:39:34:19
Jim DeCecco
Sure. So the measure of freedom that you get as a kid over in the Netherlands or Denmark or, or even in Europe in general, is incredible compared to here in the United States, as we have to go ahead and drive them everywhere. We have to walk them everywhere because we're afraid for their safety. So now I agree, that's awesome.
00:39:34:22 - 00:39:52:11
John Simmerman
So we have on screen now a little bit of a, of a grid. we've got de one through five arrive and leave and then cost to drive a, gasoline powered, car per week. this looks like a lot of math. What's going on here?
00:39:52:14 - 00:40:17:26
Jim DeCecco
you know, one of the things, you know, for for emphasizing bicycling and and walking and things like that, you know, you can go ahead and bring that back into the classroom. Now, there's state standards for, radius diameter or circumference. I mean, bicycle wheel has all of those. So, you know, rather than just some dry lesson by here's a circle where you can just put, throw a bicycle wheel in there, you can go ahead and get measurements.
00:40:17:29 - 00:40:41:22
Jim DeCecco
One of the things that we did was, is that, you know, we Google mapped how far they they were from campus. And so and then we go ahead and keep track of how they got to school, every day. And part of the state standards is, you know, going to and math is adding decimals. So, you know, part of this is adding decimals up, you know, for, for the ten, for the ten, trips that they took.
00:40:41:22 - 00:41:04:21
Jim DeCecco
And then we times it by. Oh yeah. In this case it was $0.50. And we you know so multiplying decimals is part of the state standards too. So the whole point is to bring active transportation and cycling into the classroom where it's not a one off. And we're not going ahead and substituting math for bicycle. We're actually bringing bicycles along with math into the classroom.
00:41:04:21 - 00:41:27:00
Jim DeCecco
And so this was just an activity in order to incorporate math with their transportation, just to go ahead and show them, you know, no matter whether they were biking or walking or getting driven to school, there's there's a cost to that. And we had to use math in order to do that. And of course, below there is, carbon release that those are, national science standards, too.
00:41:27:00 - 00:41:46:25
Jim DeCecco
NGS has. And so we are we are hitting that up, too, because there is part of part of California science standards. They talk about, you know, the carbon cycle and things like that. So we really try to emphasize bring it, bring what we're doing into the classroom. It's not a substitute. It's in conjunction.
00:41:46:27 - 00:41:49:18
John Simmerman
I love it. This is so cool.
00:41:49:21 - 00:42:15:04
Jim DeCecco
And then and part of part of that is exposing students to different industries. This is, Ian Ferguson. He worked for, he's a graduate out of Cal Poly. But I met him somewhere. Say, hey, he worked with this company called Slide Pad, and they were making brakes. So when you hit your one break, it would activate both brakes so you wouldn't go over the front.
00:42:15:09 - 00:42:42:10
Jim DeCecco
And so he came in and he talked, talked to the class about, hey, what skills did he use? Math. You know, science. He actually he was in marketing. So he use other skills to, you know, this job, I mean, most of their parents or hard working blue collar parents, you know, they work work in construction. They work in, you know, at the restaurants, hotels in nearby areas.
00:42:42:10 - 00:43:04:12
Jim DeCecco
Some of them worked in agriculture or because we have a lot of agriculture in around the area. But how many am working in the bike industry? Close to none. So we're just trying to expose them to students, them to to various other industries, you know, so when they grow up, you know, usually you do what you what you're exposed to and we're trying to expose them to that.
00:43:04:12 - 00:43:25:18
Jim DeCecco
So he came in and talked about it and and he end up going ahead and starting, Guardian Bikes. And so where they couldn't get that brake system on bikes or like track or something like that. So they made their own bikes, kids bikes and, and they end up contacting us and saying, hey, we need we need some student expertise.
00:43:25:18 - 00:43:47:00
Jim DeCecco
And so they so we did surveys on colors and we were able to go ahead and give them, give them some feedback on the, on their bike. So it was a good opportunity. And bringing someone else into the classroom. I was reading the paper one time and back in the day, and there was this guy who was he was riding from Seattle to San Diego, which is not unusual.
00:43:47:00 - 00:44:05:21
Jim DeCecco
There's a lot of people that ride Highway one, but he was pulling a life size replica of a white rhino on a bike. And so, you know, he's coming into the area I banged away on my phone or keyboard or whatever and say, hey, man, you're coming right by our school. Come on. Stop. And so he did. He came in, talk to the class.
00:44:05:21 - 00:44:30:19
Jim DeCecco
He was a park ranger from South Africa, and he was seen seeing how the white rhinos were were being poached out of extinction. And so he ended up going ahead and talking about his, his experience. And so, you know, we end up in court. What's that as far as the curriculum goes? Oh yeah. That's geography. That's biology. And so there's students who are exposed to these types of activities too.
00:44:30:20 - 00:44:57:14
Jim DeCecco
You know, it's all part of the curriculum. And then, you know, we took a picture with them. For those that are watching on YouTube, that in the way in the back there's this gray area and, sticking above the students heads. And that was a life size rhino, you know, like route, six feet high, eight feet long. And he was pulling that granite was papier maché, but still, you know, you're still pulling that down the length of length of California, you know, through Big Sur and other areas.
00:44:57:14 - 00:44:59:26
Jim DeCecco
I mean, the guy was a beast. So that's.
00:44:59:26 - 00:45:01:25
John Simmerman
Some cool.
00:45:01:27 - 00:45:31:24
Jim DeCecco
And, and along the lines of bringing things into the classroom that we have to work on language arts. So every student and they don't enjoy this that much, but they they all learn how to write. And so on our way to go ahead and get ice cream. And there was a one section in front of Arroyo Grande High School, where it was a strode man, you know, strong towns where you I've heard you use that term many times on your, on your podcast, but two lanes in each direction, 40 miles an hour.
00:45:31:24 - 00:46:03:12
Jim DeCecco
Normally we don't teach students to ride on on the sidewalk, but in this case it was just the safest thing to do. And and so we talked about it in the classroom and, and and so, hey, let's put our writing skills together rather than writing about something that nobody cared about. Let's go ahead and lobby the local, the local city council of Arroyo Grandy to go ahead and install bike lanes in front of a high school, no less, you know, and they and they wrote letters petitioning the city council to go ahead and put a bike lane in.
00:46:03:19 - 00:46:22:15
Jim DeCecco
And lo and behold, we're not riding on the sidewalk anymore, because through their efforts and their language, their language arts skills and their writings, they were able to persuade the city Council to go ahead and and carve out a little section of the road in order to go ahead and have a bike lane. So now everybody's just a tad bit safer on that.
00:46:22:17 - 00:46:26:27
Jim DeCecco
On that 40 mile an hour strode, at least they're not right on the sidewalks.
00:46:27:00 - 00:46:44:08
John Simmerman
Yeah, I was I was like hoping to like slide to the next photo and see that the four lane road had been reduced to, to three lanes, you know, one lane in each direction in the center turn lane and a protected bike lane, or at the very least, a buffered bike lane.
00:46:44:11 - 00:46:45:27
Jim DeCecco
we live in quite.
00:46:45:29 - 00:46:49:19
John Simmerman
Yeah.
00:46:49:22 - 00:47:10:12
John Simmerman
You get what you can. It's all these are interim steps. And sometimes that first interim step from, a strode, four lane strode with no, bike facilities at all. Sometimes this is the interim step, to what we really need to do, which is, you know, reducing the number of travel lanes and reducing the speed.
00:47:10:15 - 00:47:27:13
Jim DeCecco
As I, as I tell various at various meetings, I want to be, you know, a chair for public works and city council. And so I applaud them for what they did. Now it's just a matter of go ahead and step it up again just a little bit, because I know traffic engineers know how to design good projects.
00:47:27:13 - 00:47:33:14
Jim DeCecco
It's just a matter where there's there's, whether there's political capital in order to go ahead and do it.
00:47:33:17 - 00:48:12:19
John Simmerman
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's very much what my message is, is that if we want to see that change, we really need to grow the community support for that so that our elected officials and our city leaders know that we, the people, have their back when they do make that really, truly bold step of a road conversion like that, where you take four lanes, which, by the way, the four lane road, of course, as you've heard me say many times before, the four lane strode is one of the most dangerous, roadway, configurations that we can have because, you know, of the conflicts that exist whenever there is some a turning motion, a movement
00:48:12:19 - 00:48:13:02
John Simmerman
happening.
00:48:13:06 - 00:48:15:04
Jim DeCecco
Now, I totally agree.
00:48:15:07 - 00:48:18:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. Okay. What do we have on screen here now?
00:48:18:11 - 00:48:43:25
Jim DeCecco
May's bike month. Right. but we couldn't devote a whole month to bike, so we said, hey, we're going to have devote a week to bikes, okay? Right. Lots of activities around at school, surrounded with a bike. And this happens to be, a poster contest where they design posters for Bike Month. and we are given a little incentive for, for going ahead and doing that.
00:48:44:01 - 00:48:57:20
John Simmerman
So for those listening, this is, you know, some artwork of what the kids had put together. And there's a really cool one here that, you know, this tour to Oceana, the Race to Make Earth a better place. Good stuff.
00:48:57:22 - 00:49:21:23
Jim DeCecco
Yeah, well, they're better. They're way better artists than me. So, one of the activities that we ended up going ahead and doing was, we don't have a mayor in Oceana because it's an unincorporated part of the county, but right next door we have a mayor. And so we had hooked up with, with another school, Grover Beach Elementary School and slime, which makes, tire repair products.
00:49:21:26 - 00:49:40:09
Jim DeCecco
And we said, let's have a, let's have a bike with a mayor. Right. And so we got up early, as you can see, as you saw in the last slide, is that a there was you know, it was pretty dark. And we end up going ahead and riding over to City Hall, met up with the mayor of Grover Beach at the time.
00:49:40:12 - 00:50:04:04
Jim DeCecco
and part of this was to go ahead and bring awareness to the, to the city council of Grover Beach and also the mayor of Grover Beach and any other city official that that was in the area about a need for, you know, some dedicated infrastructure. But anyways, we wrote over there, have a have a police escort.
00:50:04:04 - 00:50:36:28
Jim DeCecco
Mayor rides with us up the street to Grover Beach Elementary School. You know, we take some photos. It was it was awesome. And then we end up going ahead and, riding back to school and part and part of this, too, is like Bike to school week. We had other activities. Erin English, she's a local musician. She was riding from, Northern California to Southern California on her bike with her band and playing along the way and so she stopped off at Oceana, to go ahead and put on a little concert for the students that week.
00:50:37:00 - 00:50:59:15
Jim DeCecco
And then, you know, we have other activities where we end up going ahead and having some, you know, trick riders come out. So students are are seeing various forms of biking. Okay. So you have like touring, you know, you have like commuter bikes. And then of course you have these guys that are, that, that are actually going out there.
00:50:59:17 - 00:51:19:15
Jim DeCecco
and you were talking about the Netherlands and having, you know, kind of, license testing. What we did that to, is that we had like a, we had a written test for the students, and then they had to get on bikes and demonstrate competency. That's our, our award winning PE instructor out there doing that.
00:51:19:15 - 00:51:41:16
Jim DeCecco
And we, and I'm going ahead and having, bike license and we and and we also partnered up with Sram. They make bicycle components. They have a research and development plant in San Luis Obispo. And we work with raising money for world bike release. And as part of that is that he said, hey, why don't you come out to our, our research and development facility?
00:51:41:16 - 00:52:03:16
Jim DeCecco
And we did the same thing we did with Ian where we're showing them, oh, yeah. This is how your academic skills can be used in different industries. In this case, you know, they're looking at chain rings, and this person, mechanical engineer, shown how they design drive trains. And then of course, we end up going out and looking at the bikes.
00:52:03:18 - 00:52:33:13
Jim DeCecco
on the next slide, the buffalo bike that we raised, money or Buffalo bikes that we end up raising money in order to go ahead and buy bikes for people in Africa, because you know, a doctor can see way more patients on a bike than he can by walking from village to village. And I was, was kind of ironic that, we were students that I had we're raising money for students in Africa when they, they didn't have a bike themselves.
00:52:33:13 - 00:52:50:10
Jim DeCecco
But, anyway, you know, Sram was was a great partner. And then, of course, you know, every day was bike to school day that week. And you see the enthusiasm that we, that we got out of, out of Vitus school weeks,
00:52:50:12 - 00:53:25:23
John Simmerman
This is amazing. And I, I love the bike to school day, the bike to school week, the, you know, the enthusiasm that goes around with, you know, kind of changing the paradigm. And oftentimes it's changing the paradigm for the parents to and, you know, in sample to coach ball to, you know, from Portland with the bike bus, there at Alameda Elementary School, we talked a little bit about how it's one thing to be able to lead the bike bus on Wednesday mornings, you know, for his school and the kids doing that.
00:53:25:23 - 00:53:52:25
John Simmerman
And it's there's so much energy and so much, you know, passion with it. One of the things that, that I'm hoping to see is that that spreads over to more of the kids riding on their own the other four days of the week. And, you know, getting to that level where what we're seeing on screen here, for those listening in, is a photograph of literally like 70 to 100 bikes.
00:53:52:25 - 00:53:56:03
John Simmerman
I mean, it's just it's fantastic. Maybe even more.
00:53:56:05 - 00:53:57:27
Jim DeCecco
125 or so.
00:53:58:00 - 00:53:59:01
John Simmerman
125.
00:53:59:03 - 00:54:01:03
Jim DeCecco
That.
00:54:01:06 - 00:54:25:01
John Simmerman
And and this is something that I actually see at many of the middle schools in Boulder, Colorado, is it's it's so ingrained for them now that this is their mobility. This is how they get around. And so the it's put pressure on to the school system to make sure that they have enough bike parking so that they can the kids can lock them up for literally hundreds of bikes showing up.
00:54:25:04 - 00:54:51:21
John Simmerman
And it it it's at times you're just pinching yourself going, are we in the Netherlands? You know, when you see a school that has that level of excitement. So this really brings a huge smile to my face to see that, you know, there is that pent up demand in need. And if we truly want to encourage, you know, kids to be able to get to school on a daily basis, then we need to start thinking about, okay, do they have a safe route to be able to get to school?
00:54:51:27 - 00:54:55:18
John Simmerman
And then when they get to school, do we have a safe place for them to lock their bikes up?
00:54:55:21 - 00:55:17:13
Jim DeCecco
Yeah, it was awesome. Yeah. And up. Having that made students enthusiastic about variety in on those particular days. One of the things that I'm, I'm most proud of is the fact that, we got students ranching. Also, now that we bring bicycling into the curriculum, we actually got students ranching. And so we partnered up with a local Honor Farms, sheriff's department.
00:55:17:13 - 00:55:40:09
Jim DeCecco
And they and they give away bikes at, like, Christmas. So they take old bikes and then fix them up and then go ahead and give them to students that don't have bikes. But what happens is over time, we end up going ahead and building up a loaner bike program. So what happens is, is that we need a loaner bikes because, you know, students will come to school only, oh, my bike has a flat or it's not working or whatever.
00:55:40:09 - 00:55:57:10
Jim DeCecco
Of course I would encourage them to bring in the school. So we have fix but you know, so everybody could ride. We had these, we had a fleet of loaner bikes, and those loaner bikes had to be maintained. So, you know, we taught students how to go ahead and pump up it. You know, you'd be surprised.
00:55:57:12 - 00:56:11:26
Jim DeCecco
you wouldn't be surprised. But other people be surprised that, you know, students don't know how to go ahead and pump up their own, you know, their own tires, even with a bike pump. so we taught them how to do that. We taught them how to go ahead and change flats. We ended up going ahead adjusting brakes, you know, minor type of stuff.
00:56:11:26 - 00:56:31:15
Jim DeCecco
They're not you know, they're not bike mechanics working at a bike shop, but they're students that are going ahead and turning wrenches. And so it got to the point where, you know, people knew our school was about bikes and they just would bring these beater bikes to school. Hey, man, I just want to get this thing out of my, my garage or, you know, away from the apartment you want to take.
00:56:31:16 - 00:56:53:19
Jim DeCecco
And and I say, yeah. So, we throw out in the front of the front of the classroom with some simple green, a toothbrush and a rag, and they they clean these bikes up, pump up the tires, the ones that we couldn't get working, but we just go ahead and part. So that way we had extra tires around or extra brake pads or extra pedals or things like that, or other students that needed it.
00:56:53:21 - 00:57:09:21
Jim DeCecco
And it came to the point where actually I had somebody from, retired person from Cal Poly would come once a week and I'd send students out there to go ahead and and work on bikes, because our motto was, you know, I'd always tell students, oh, they tell me, oh, my bike isn't working. Bring it to school, have a we'll fix it.
00:57:09:22 - 00:57:25:02
Jim DeCecco
You know, all you have to do is get it here. You know, we'll we'll do it. We'll do the work. And so, students love that they did it before school. They did it, you know, during their recesses, as you know, a lot of times they didn't order. Hey, I finished my math lesson. Can I go out and work on the bike?
00:57:25:02 - 00:57:48:16
Jim DeCecco
Sure, man. Go ahead. Have at it. You know, so it'd be out in front of the classroom going to have them working on bikes while other people were going to other students or finishing things up. And so yeah, it means there was a there was a lot of good ranching going on, which was great for students. And then, you know, like I told you, Ron Walton, my principal at the time, tremendous guy, ended up going ahead and buying this for the community.
00:57:48:16 - 00:58:00:13
Jim DeCecco
So I'd be there on weekends. I, I could hear people out and in back of the classroom going ahead and working on their bikes on weekends, you know, because we have these bike stands and they didn't have tools at their house.
00:58:00:13 - 00:58:26:08
John Simmerman
So, yeah. And this is, on screen here for the listening audience. We have a fix at station. So, it's got, the ability to, you know, put the bike up on to sort of a little rack, a holder system there. You've got a pump and you've got, all your necessary tools, the typical tools that one might need to be able to do some minor repairs to a bike and get that bike rolling once again, it's good stuff.
00:58:26:08 - 00:58:26:24
John Simmerman
I love it.
00:58:26:25 - 00:58:50:22
Jim DeCecco
Yeah, I'll tell you, because it is kind of a tale of like two, two stories. before we get to this is that, you know, as you've seen for like the last, you know, few minutes is that we we did a lot of things at Oceana. One time, I was riding a reading and bicycling magazine about Fort Collins getting an award from the American from the League of American Bicyclists.
00:58:50:22 - 00:59:13:02
Jim DeCecco
They got, like, a silver award, and I was reading all the things that they did. I'm going like, wow, I thought that was a really cool, cool setup that they had at Fort Collins High School. And I was thinking, you know, that how we did that and more, you know, at Oceana, I was like, now it's kind of like this friendly competition, you know, so I go, yeah, we did that.
00:59:13:02 - 00:59:33:21
Jim DeCecco
And so I end up going ahead and writing to the League of American Bicyclists, and I got an application for a bike friendly business, which is how they rate schools. And you would you would think that you would have it in schools, but it was under bike friendly business. And so we fill out the application and we listed all the things that we were doing.
00:59:33:23 - 01:00:00:26
Jim DeCecco
And as it turned out, you know, we end up going ahead and getting the only gold level designee school bike friendly business in the whole country. So as a measurement, we were, you know, we consider ourself the best bike in school at the country, in the country at the time. And you know, there's a source of pride for all the things that all the hard work that the staff and students have done in order to get to that point.
01:00:00:28 - 01:00:25:27
Jim DeCecco
And then, of course, with anything that happens, there's a tale of two stories here is that I got a little older and, decided to retire. which which, which is a lesson in sustainability. A lot of times at schools, you have a parent driving something, and and you have a, you have a teacher driving something, or you have a principal driving something.
01:00:25:29 - 01:00:53:06
Jim DeCecco
And when they leave, you know, unfortunately, a lot of the good things that they did leave with them, in my case, I retired. And then Covid hit and whatever momentum we had going just was crushed. I mean, unfortunately, and by the time things, you know, Covid ended, you know, teachers and staff were just hunkering down. Nobody, you know, people were doing great things in the classroom.
01:00:53:08 - 01:01:15:00
Jim DeCecco
But the momentum we had as a, as a school, kind of waned. And, you know, fortunately for me, myself, as I got hired back at school and we were and I ended up going ahead and, you know, we were working with the Safe Routes program, and we had a, a parent step up, grandparent step up.
01:01:15:07 - 01:01:33:02
Jim DeCecco
She had her grandkids going to the school. And so she was part of the, the new Safe Routes program. I'm back in a different position. I'm not a teacher driving things anymore. I'm. I'm a helper, and she's driving things. And so, you know, last year, I like you know what? Let's bring some of that magic that we had going.
01:01:33:02 - 01:01:58:04
Jim DeCecco
Now, you've been listening to talk about for like, the last 35 or 40 minutes back to Oceana. She contacted Bike Slow County. And so we got a bike rodeo on. On a Sunday, 200 people showed up in order to go ahead and ride bikes on our on our bike training courses, face painting, music, you know, hot dog free hot dogs and stuff to to generate some momentum.
01:01:58:11 - 01:02:21:22
Jim DeCecco
And then the the principal at the time ended up going ahead and contacting bike Slow County. And they did the same exact thing that you were talking about. bike education. They have a fleet of bikes that they bring out to schools. back when I started back in 2007, nobody did any of this stuff. It's come a long ways in San Luis Obispo County and probably, you know, just about everywhere.
01:02:21:25 - 01:02:50:04
Jim DeCecco
as far as, as far as education and education on bikes. And so we had, bike education. And then, you know, we did bike with a mayor and we have a new principal this year that will principal was great. She retired. The new principal has new energy. He wants to say yes to everything. And so we brought the bike, the bike policy back and and, we went we're at a different bike or a different ice cream shop now.
01:02:50:04 - 01:03:19:04
Jim DeCecco
It's it's not 3.5 miles away. It's, it's about 1.7 different direction as, as we can tell. But the enthusiasm is there. And what you saw before is not only did we go ahead, bring that back to ourselves, but there's other schools that the video that you're seeing here is Grover Beach Elementary School. We have, counselor there, Sienna Robertson there, end up going ahead and saying, taking what Oceana used to do as far as a a bike policy.
01:03:19:04 - 01:03:38:11
Jim DeCecco
And she turned it into her own, where they're riding the ice to get ice cream. And as you can see, they have the corporate beach police department, going ahead. They made they made this video because they give escorts. You shouldn't need an escort to go ahead and get ice cream, but they're very generous with their time and they're totally community oriented.
01:03:38:13 - 01:04:00:18
Jim DeCecco
And they like doing these types of things. And so they end up going ahead and, having a bike policy. And on top of that, the next slide is, is that our former principal? I talked about him already, Tom Butler, he was at Oceana. He saw all the great things that he he was helping initiate veterans bike ride, you know, bike policy, walk to school day, bike to school day.
01:04:00:18 - 01:04:19:27
Jim DeCecco
He brought this to he is now a superintendent of Atascadero Unified. And he brought this on a district level. So he said, hey, Oceana has a is our Oceana has this cycle track. We're going to have more. We're going to go one better. We're going to go ahead and make a cycle track for every elementary in the district.
01:04:19:29 - 01:04:39:06
Jim DeCecco
So it wasn't just like, hey, we're keeping this a little secret on our corner of the world. We're going to go ahead and branch out. And he brought in. He bought a fleet of bikes and they do their own on bike, bike education in Atascadero Unified. They have like a bike mechanic come in and teach bike mechanics after school.
01:04:39:09 - 01:05:05:09
Jim DeCecco
So yeah. So the momentum is coming back. The things that we did were great. Kind of died a little bit. But now, it's been expanded throughout the county because of what Oceana did. We introduced a lot of concepts to a lot of really good people that are seeing the benefits from it. And so, you know, I looked at your your videos on, Sam Balto many a time back in the day when he was first starting this.
01:05:05:12 - 01:05:22:08
Jim DeCecco
You know, I, like I said, a little friendly competition. I like that dude's doing some really great stuff, but so are we. We're doing a million things. Hey, at that. And so he's he kind of like, drove me to go ahead and start a bike school bus and do a bunch of other things, which I compliment him for.
01:05:22:08 - 01:05:42:09
Jim DeCecco
And now we have our own bike school bus, and I'll not like him. He's got like 200 kids or like 20. But, you know, one day we might be able to build back up to that. And then kind of like the last slide was, a little bit of a joke we built. Well, I told the principal, Mr. Herrera, like I said, the guys.
01:05:42:09 - 01:06:05:25
Jim DeCecco
Guys awesome says yes to everything. So I need, a place to go and store some loaner bikes. And these are bikes that on the on our farms now starting to donate that. I have some students working on special needs students and stuff like that, working on them during the course of the day. And so he was, generous enough to give me a girls bathroom to go ahead and, and use as my, as my bike office.
01:06:05:25 - 01:06:17:28
Jim DeCecco
So as half jokingly, they come into Mr. D's office and areas, I go, but even got a toilet in there. So anyways, that's where that's where we're at now. Yeah.
01:06:18:01 - 01:06:25:21
John Simmerman
Tim, what a fabulous story. So, so yeah. So you're you're un retired now.
01:06:25:24 - 01:06:27:26
Jim DeCecco
You've talked your like.
01:06:27:28 - 01:06:59:07
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah. And yeah, I mean just talk a little bit about how special this is for you. to be able to do this work. I mean, you've, you've been doing this obviously for decades of, of impacting, you know, influencing the lives of, of, of these young children. And you've probably, you have probably have many stories of people, you know, coming back and, you know, years later when they're parents and maybe, you know, maybe even in some cases, grandparents at this point.
01:06:59:07 - 01:07:01:05
Jim DeCecco
Yeah, we're getting we're getting there. Right. Yeah.
01:07:01:05 - 01:07:26:26
John Simmerman
You're getting there, I, I, I'm getting there too. and I mean, but there's something special about teaching this stuff. You mentioned it earlier when we were referencing the, the, the fact that touch children have a certain level of, of independence and their the ability to be mobile and, and have that be part of, of them growing up.
01:07:26:29 - 01:07:49:15
John Simmerman
I'm hoping that this will be sort of the legacy of your work there in Oceano. And as, as you're mentioning, it's spreading. I mean, all the way up to Atascadero, which is, you know, kind of north of of, where you're at there, up in the, it's what it's north of, of San Luis Obispo, so yeah, even.
01:07:49:17 - 01:08:12:29
John Simmerman
Yeah. Even further north of, Saint, Santa margarita. But yeah, talk a little bit about that part of it. I mean, because it's it's got to be pretty special for you to be able to see the impact that's, that is having on the lives of the children. Yes. Acknowledgment and recognition from the National League and all that kind of stuff.
01:08:12:29 - 01:08:27:00
John Simmerman
And, and, you know, and saying, hey, what about us here in Seattle? We're doing this kind of stuff too. But beyond that recognition, I mean, personally, it's got to be pretty, pretty powerful for you and pretty special for you.
01:08:27:02 - 01:08:47:02
Jim DeCecco
Sure. You know, it's it the recognition from, let's say, the League of American Bicyclists isn't for me. It's for, you know, any chance I get to go ahead and and say good things about our staff, which is they're the ones that are like driving it, you know, they they do a lot of things, you know, but, you know, they may not get recognized for it.
01:08:47:02 - 01:08:50:08
Jim DeCecco
So having me out there occasionally, you know.
01:08:50:11 - 01:09:01:07
John Simmerman
I would even say if I can jump in, Jim, just say that even more so than just the staff you mentioned earlier, there was a sense of pride that even the community has.
01:09:01:09 - 01:09:22:22
Jim DeCecco
Oh, sure. You know, it's, you know, we're we're a little section of our of our community, and we may not be well known for a lot of things, but, you know, when they go ahead and see, you know, at the time, 70 students rolling out Oceana, clogging up the streets and other communities nearby, they knew who we were.
01:09:22:22 - 01:09:54:13
Jim DeCecco
And so that was a that was a good thing, because that sheds our community and our students in a in a positive light. He all those kids smiling, having fun on bikes. You know, I would say they see us, they see some happy students. And so while you were talking about the satisfaction, you know, I'll always love, it's kind of like it's one of the best parts of me going back to, to school or back to work is the fact that, you know, I do get to see a lot of former students who stayed in the community, and I love being around them.
01:09:54:13 - 01:10:13:28
Jim DeCecco
You know, it's like it makes my day when I have like my I'm able to go ahead and talk to former Oceano students and they can reflect back on the fact that in some cases, that was the most meaningful part of their life up to this point. And so, yeah, there's there's some something special about that. And then that drives me to keep on working.
01:10:14:01 - 01:10:33:24
Jim DeCecco
And I have that principal the other days are like, well, God, we're starting all these things. where are you going to quit on me next year? Like, no, I mean, I, I it's like I enjoy it. I enjoy every day getting up, riding my bike 6.2 miles to work, one of the rain or shine or whatever, and and being here and working with students.
01:10:33:24 - 01:10:54:24
Jim DeCecco
And so, yeah, I'm going to be around for a while, you know, in the process of, you know, dragging some of the younger teachers around and go ahead and, and, and participate, you know, they're working hard in the classroom. It's always nice to have, you know, we have like 5 or 6 various teachers go ahead and ride on our last bike ride.
01:10:54:24 - 01:11:13:19
Jim DeCecco
And they're like, oh, man, this is so fun. Yeah, I want to do this again. So it's just introducing them to good things. But like you said, being able to see former students and, and knowing that, we as a staff played a small role. And in their story, I would say there's two things that come out of this.
01:11:13:19 - 01:11:52:19
Jim DeCecco
One is that in schools at Oceana, we have a motto give them a reason to come to school. So all this biking, walking, running, everything that we're doing was a reason for them to wake up every day and and come to school. And that's, that's so important. But giving it, you know, one of those things of giving them a reason to come to school is doing activities and having tremendous leadership and great principles, saying yes to activities because I have so many people go like, well, aren't you afraid of of liability having, you know, riding with all those students?
01:11:52:22 - 01:12:20:06
Jim DeCecco
I'm like, no. It's like we do our due diligence. We train them up how to ride, and we do, bike education and things like that, that there's solid liability, you know, kids can break their arms on, on the playground. So all of my principals, you know, I mentioned Mr. Butler, Ron Walton, the new principal, Mr. Herrera, they all found reasons to say yes when there could be a lot of things that say no.
01:12:20:13 - 01:12:40:29
Jim DeCecco
They found a reason to say yes. And that's what makes coming to school so special, because, you know, when you come up with an idea and you sell it, you know that they're going to go ahead and say yes and give it a shot. Say, how can we make it better? So their enthusiasm drives my enthusiasm in the enthused gasm of teachers that work there.
01:12:40:29 - 01:13:06:22
John Simmerman
So yeah, I love it, Jim. I'm going to press play on this short little video here that you shot. This is you just mentioned, you know, you writing to school and this is part of your, your ride, to school into work. talk a little bit about just in or your final thoughts or final advice to anybody who's tuned in to this and is inspired to do something in their community.
01:13:06:24 - 01:13:18:05
John Simmerman
You know what? What one thing or two, 1 or 2 things would you recommend that they do, you know, to really make this be a success in their community?
01:13:18:08 - 01:13:44:00
Jim DeCecco
I would say this is unfortunately, democracy is not a passive activity. It's actually an active activity. And so become involved. If you're a parent and you see a need, go talk to your principal. I mean, it starts at the schools because we have a built in clientele and if you see a need, let's say, for instance, you had dangerous, dangerous roads.
01:13:44:03 - 01:14:13:03
Jim DeCecco
Feel free to go ahead and contact your city council member and and lobby them. Because quite frankly, we talked about this just a little while ago is that traffic engineers and city council members, a lot of them want to do the right thing, but they need that shield, meaning that, you know, when they go ahead and, traffic engineer or plan or design something and it's a little bit outside the box, meaning you have like you take away a parking spot.
01:14:13:05 - 01:14:33:24
Jim DeCecco
Go figure on that one. is that when you come to a city council meeting, you're going to have people like, no, they just want status quo. But if you come out and speak for the design, you're the shield that takes the arrows for a change. And so we need people to become just a little bit more active.
01:14:33:26 - 01:14:49:01
Jim DeCecco
Like I said, you can get this stuff done in your schools just by contacting your teacher or, or principal or superintendent. They're more than willing to listen. And you draw out a plan and say you're willing to help. Good for you. Because that that can get things done.
01:14:49:04 - 01:15:12:10
John Simmerman
Yeah. And I've seen it myself. Where when there's energy and enthusiasm from the kids, they actually lead the way and bring the parents along. And then suddenly the parents get engaged and active and they're like, yeah, we need to we need to do better with this, and we need to make this happen within our communities. And then that gets communicated up to the powers that be.
01:15:12:10 - 01:15:27:04
John Simmerman
And suddenly they have the political will because they see that their voting constituents are like, yeah, with this, this is important for us. So good stuff, Jim, this has been such a pleasure getting a chance to meet you. Thank you so much for joining me on the Active Jams podcast.
01:15:27:06 - 01:15:45:02
Jim DeCecco
this was, this is an offer great opportunity to listen to active towns every week. You give me, like, little nuggets of inspiration that I, that I try to bring back to the classroom and back to the school. So, you know, continue to do the great work that you're doing. Now, I know you have a really good audience out here.
01:15:45:04 - 01:15:59:04
John Simmerman
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01:15:59:09 - 01:16:26:26
John Simmerman
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01:16:26:26 - 01:16:46:26
John Simmerman
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01:16:46:26 - 01:16:58:12
John Simmerman
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