Doing it for the Kids

Krista Carlson

Bringing bike polo to the youth in Bakersfield, CA.

Photos by Jon Lake - www.jonlakephotography.com

While many Safe Routes to School programs focus on incentives and safety for children biking and walking to school, here in Bakersfield, California there is a focus on simply getting kids to be active, outdoors and healthy. And thanks to one guy’s itch to play bike polo, and no reservations to seize an opportunity, kids on the Southeast side of Bakersfield now have a new way to spend their afternoons one day a week.

Kids bike polo was brought to the park in 2011 by Brian DeLaCerda, a former Safe Routes to School coordinator, who has been one of Bike Bakersfield’s only transplant staff members. “I realized that I had a lot of creative freedom,” he explains. “I just tried to bring in things that I was a part of in Austin and Boston.”