BELLE FOURCHE—Kids and their families were invited to ride alongside the Belle Fourche Police Department’s Bike Patrol on the afternoon of October 5. The ride began in Herrmann Park.
The day offered so much more than a simple bike ride. The opportunity to partner police officers with members of the community spreads acceptance and understanding. It provides a real world example of how kids can rely on the police. Officers did bike checks, filled low bike tires, taught bike safety and led the bike ride through Belle Fourche. “I’ve got a few people who are really passionate about riding bikes and are wanting to get more youth involvement and get kids out and active,” said Chief of Police Ryan Cherveny.
Sergeant Detective Jason Huber was the driving force behind the Kids and Cops event. Of course other officers jumped on board to help out. Cherveny explained, “We’ve got four officers here today, three that will be riding and one that will be helping with traffic, and then we’ve got Deputy March who will be taking photos with his drone.”
There was an ambulance, fire truck and police car in the park that the kids were invited to tour. Bike helmets were available for free to any child that needed one and at the end of the ride, four brand new bikes were given away along with many other prizes. “If you don’t win the bike, there are other prizes we’re going to give out too, so hopefully somebody walks away with something other than good memories,” said Huber.
Before the group headed out on the ride, Sergeant Detective Huber spent some time explaining to them what to expect on the route. He advised that the ride was about 35 minutes long at a fairly slow pace and offered the opportunity to some of the less experienced riders the choice to stay at the park and ride there, and then meet a little later at the Crazee Cow for ice cream.
“It’s not a race, it’s to enjoy the time. There’s going to be a couple of us in the back, if you get tired or you need a break (…) or something goes wrong—you need to let one of us know—but we’re going to go nice and slow and nice and easy,” Huber said.
Once again the area businesses stepped up to help and sponsor the event. “This wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the help of a lot of donors,” said Cherveny. “We had Crazee Cows offer us a stop for ice cream, Grap’s donated some food and snacks, Runnings donated and Walmart donated some bikes. Rushmore Bikes donated a bike—so we’ve had quite a few people help sponsor this.”
The turn out was good and plans for another Kids and Cops bike ride is already in the works. “Next year we can try to schedule something—we’re hoping maybe right after school gets out and then making it an annual event,” said Cherveny.
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