You know that old box of bike parts you’ve put in your closet? You don’t really use them but kept them because they are still worth something and who knows, you may need that set of Ultergra Brake levers one day. Or that old frame that has been hanging on your wall for two years because you intended to make a commuter out of it, or the perfectly good carbon stem that doesn’t fit your new frame, or last years team kit. Drag that box to Sid’s Bikes on 151 W 19th St, they have a bigger box where you can deposit them. Gavi Epstein has generously volunteered to gather them up, clean and photograph them. He will then auction them on eBay with the profits going to IChallengeMyself.

Challenge Myself (ICM) uses fitness-based challenges and service learning that allow youth in low-income communities to develop physically, academically and socially.  

ICM expects that youth who successfully complete their programs:

• View challenges as opportunities to learn and grow.
• Experience the value of goal-setting, discipline, hard work and teamwork. 
• Incorporate fitness and healthy eating as a lifestyle.
• Recognize that learning extends beyond the classroom.
• Transfer their newly acquired skills and experiences to lead healthy, happy and productive lives. 

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Cycling Smarts  

Cycling Smarts is offered as an elective class to high school students at the George Washington Educational Campus, the Bronx Lab School and Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School. Students participate in 225-450 minutes per week (3-5 days a week) of moderate to vigorous cross training program consisting of indoor spinning, outdoor cycling, indoor swimming, resistance training, and/or running. For one period each week students authentically make connections between the fitness activities they are participating in and academic subjects in the classroom as they learn to calculate their caloric intake, track their resting and aerobic heart rates, or conduct research of historic neighborhoods and sights they encounter on their bike rides. 

Schools Implementing Cycling Smarts:

• George Washington Educational Campus (Washington Heights)
• Bronx Lab School
• Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School 
• New York Harbor School (will start implementing Cycling Smarts in September 2010)

Learn more about Cycling Smarts