Clipped In for Life

We're wrapping up our first week of Youth Communities Access Summer Ride Camps, and we are honored to have the opportunity to ride with these amazing 2nd & 3rd graders! We’re so proud of all they accomplished, including several kids who learned to pedal for the first time this week. We built skills and confidence, learned we can do hard things, formed friendships, and made summer memories that will last a lifetime!

Highlights from the rest of this week included:
💪 Practicing our skills on the camp's pump track and skills features
🔧 Changing a flat tire and learning how to fix things on our bikes
🐍 Nature and history lessons with California State Parks Interpreters
💡 Touring the Folsom Powerhouse Museum and understanding how electricity works
🫐 Picking and eating blackberries we found on the trail!
💦 Playing on paddleboards and big inflatable docks at Lake Natoma
🍦 Enjoying a hard-earned ice cream treat on a hot day from Snooks Candies!
🐻 Visiting Folsom Zoo and seeing so many animals
🚦 Learning the importance of traffic safety and trail etiquette when we're on our bikes
🎨 Ending the week with face painting and balloon art thanks to one of our camper's moms!

Applications are still open for the rest of our camps this summer - visit www.clippedinforlife.org/yca to learn more and apply.

We're two days into our Summer Ride Camps funded by the Youth Community Access grant and it's been amazing so far working with this week's 2nd and 3rd graders. We've had the pleasure of fitting them to brand new Trek Bicycle Company mountain bikes with their name on them as well as helmets, tools, bottles and supplies from Mike's Bikes that are theirs to keep. After all that excitement, we started a riding journey to discover the world around us. Today, we visited the Folsom History museum with most kids riding there on their under their own power. Some weren't quite ready for that journey yet since riding is still new and that's ok. So we loaded up the bikes so that after the history museum tour everyone could feel the achievement of riding to the other side of Lake Natoma for some fun times with friends at Folsom Lake SRA Black Miner's Bar.

We're so excited for the impact our team will have in the days and weeks ahead this summer!

Today delivered a new challenge for the week: summer temps. Our routes provided shady trails and big adventures as each group rode nearly all the way around Lake Natoma! These kids showed some grit today and learned about staying hydrated in the heat. All were rewarded with some playtime at Black Miner’s Bar on paddleboards to cool off and recharge at the end!

Today's highlights:
💦 Learning how to stay hydrated when it's hot
🚲 Riding all the way around Lake Natoma
🌱 Nature lessons from the California State Parks Interpreters
🚣 Cooling off in the lake on a hot day and playing on paddleboards