SPARKS – "Riding your bike to school is splendid." 

Such simple eloquence could only come from the mind of a child. This nugget of wisdom came from Madelynn Brown, a seventh grader at Dilworth Middle School, as the opening line of her winning essay "Why Bike To School." Madelynn was one of three essay winners from Dilworth who went to Lincoln Park Elementary School on Friday to impart lessons about the personal and environmental benefits of riding a bike. 

As rain fell on the Truckee Meadows Friday afternoon, students at Lincoln Park got lessons in how to respect Mother Earth from teachers, older students and adults from the Sparks Kiwanis club and Sierra Nevada Journeys. As part of the Earth Day celebration, students learned bike safety and maintenance in the hopes they would make their childhood bike riding a lifelong habit. 

"They (Lincoln Park students) figure out through learning and experience that they have the ability to make change in their community," said Joanna Fergiuele, a volunteer with Sierra Nevada Journeys who helped coordinate the event. "They take what they learn in school and apply it to everyday life." 

Georgette Knecht, dean of students at Dilworth, said the Lincoln Park students are more apt to apply their lessons about safety from the their Dilworth counterparts than if the lessons came from adults. 

"Elementary students see middle school students wear a bike helmet, it's cool to be safe," Knecht said. 

The bike safety fair began in the school's cafeteria, where the Lincoln Park students met Madelynn and the other essay winners before moving on to a demonstration of wind power – another addition to the Earth Day theme. Students then stopped at a station to see in dramatic fashion the need for a helmet when riding a bike. First, students dropped an egg on the tile floor – SPLAT! – to show how one's head might be affected hitting the ground without a helmet. The students then dropped the egg into a box full of Styrofoam peanuts to show how the splatting might be prevented. 

"That's your head with a helmet on," Sparks Middle School seventh grader Casey Cole told the younger students. 

Students also learned about the "ABC quick check" from Sparks Middle seventh grader Charlie Dauwalter: "A" is for air; "B" is for brakes"; and "C" is for cranks, chain and cassette. Those who brought their own bikes to the fair also were able to have them checked by Ed Jensen, the bike technology teacher at the Academy of Arts, Careers and Technology high school in Reno. 

Lincoln Park students then got fitted for a bike helmet before heading out to the playground to ride and learn hand signals. Dilworth teacher Leo Mendelsohn and several middle school students had the elementary students ride back and forth to learn how to signal left and right turns and stops. The young riders also had to look backward while riding to show the effects of keeping one's head facing the road. The added obstacle of the course came courtesy of bad weather. 

"It's one thing to talk about riding a bike and another to give students the opportunity on Earth Day to ride a bike out in the rain," Knecht said. 

The local Kiwanis Club is in need of donated bicycles to give to needy children. Donations can be brought to any area fire station, or the Waste Management transfer station on Commercial Row in Reno or the facility in Stead. For more information, call 337-1717 or visit www.kiwanisbikes.org.