Brookville camp teaches kids with disabilities to ride bicycles
ICan Bike camp provides bicycles for its Brookville sessions for children with disabilities and their typical partners who participate. Credit: Getty Images / Jenna Wagner
Kids with disabilities can learn to ride a conventional two-wheeler bicycle at a one-week camp in Brookville called iCan Bike.
Campers must be at least 8 years old. With 75 minutes of instruction a day for five days, more than 80 percent of riders learn to ride a conventional bicycle independently, according to iCan Bike. Each camper must bring along a typical partner — a friend, neighbor, sibling or relative who will learn strategies for making their friend or family member more independent. Camp is a program of iCan Bike (formerly Lose the Training Wheels), The Down Syndrome Advocacy Foundation and The Center for Community Inclusion at LIU Post.
The camp provides bicycles for the sessions. Camper disabilities can include Down syndrome, autism, learning disabilities, ADHD and more, says Susan Antonio, administrator for the Hauppauge-based Down Syndrome Advocacy Foundation.
Camp runs from June 25 to 29; five different sessions each day begin at 8:30 a.m. and run through 5 p.m. The cost is $200 and includes both rider and friend. Camp is indoors in the gymnasium at Pratt Recreation Center on the Post Campus of Long Island University, 720 Northern Blvd., Brookville. For more information or to register, call 516-983-7008, email dsaf03@gmail.com or visit icanshine.org. Applications are available at dsafonline.org; applications and payment must be received by June 15. A limited number of scholarships are available.
