Trips for Kids Marin (TFKM) is the nation’s oldest youth development cycling organization. It is the original founding chapter of the National Trips For Kids organization and was the model for 50 chapters established across the U.S. Since 1988, we have enriched the lives of over 40,000 young people across the SF Bay Area using a simple yet powerful tool – the bicycle.

For over 26 years, TFKM’s Earn-a-Bike (EAB) program has been equipping kids with STEM principles, team building exercises, life skills and bike ownership at our training facility in San Rafael, CA. The regular weekly after-school schedule serves 120 students annually. Our EAB lessons directly connect underserved youth with STEM principles of one of the world’s oldest and greatest inventions, the bicycle, and use the bicycle as a platform for students to study math, geometry, physics, history, the environment, life skills and more. Kids learn hands-on bicycle repair and mechanic skills including: learning the parts of a bike, fixing flats and gauging tire pressure, adjusting brakes, installing petals, handlebars, seats, and building a bicycle. At the end of the program students are able to earn their own bike. Now that they have a bike, many EAB beginner class graduates want to continue learning and sign up for our intermediate EAB classes.

A grant of $1,000 from the Awesome Foundation will help us continue adapting our beginner EAB curriculum for virtual learning and online classes with our youth previously enrolled in our program prior to the COVID-19 crisis. While COVID-19 is a challenge unlike any other, our team is continuing to engage our youth by providing EAB virtual programming that extends into their home environments. As our EAB workshops came to a halt in March due to the shelter in place orders, many of our students expressed that they wanted to complete the spring session and earn their bicycle, and advance to the intermediate sessions in the Summer/Fall.