CITRUS HEIGHTS — A Citrus Heights elementary school Tuesday kicked off its annual Biketober event, which encourages children to either bike or walk to school.
Nichole Harshbarger is a teacher at Kingswood Elementary who helped organize Biketober, where all 568 students can join together in a bike ride from the nearby Target store to school each Tuesday in October.
"It's a huge community feel and the kids get so excited when their parents drop them off," Harshbarger said. "They will ride donuts around and then when we are all going, it doesn't matter if you are slow or fast because we're all together."
It piggybacks off another bike to school event that happens in May.
"It helps having it twice a year," Harshbarger said. "It's nice because, at the beginning of the year if we can get some safety going, then it helps carry them throughout when they come back in May."
Teachers, staff and parents join in on the bike rides to help kids navigate their way to school safely while teaching them about community and confidence.
"Because riding around home, around their streets or in their yards, that's one thing," Harshbarger said. "But to be out of the element and to be with a lot of friends and a lot of peers, then that gives them a lot more confidence and assurance that they are able to do it."