She recognized the need for bike lessons after teaching some of her friends’ kids. It’s OK for parents to outsource bike lessons, she says, because “parents aren’t the subject matter expert in cycling, but I am. Most of us had swim instructors, our parents didn’t have to teach us to swim. Mom and Dad may not have ridden their bikes for years, and their uncertainty often creates an unpleasant situation.”
Learning to ride a bike is a progressive skill, she says. “It’s about balance. We build their confidence with balance,” says Varn, who isn’t a fan of training wheels. “For some it takes a half-hour, others take three days.”
Varn and her staff of high school- and college-age instructors create a fun environment in the after-school club and summer camp sessions. Many of her students are very young, thanks to the popularity of balance bikes — pedal-free bikes that help little ones figure out how to balance on two wheels. “So these kids have learned to pedal a bike by age three or four, but their parents need help reining in all that energy and teaching the kids how to safely bike on streets and trails.”
The East Coast Greenway features prominently in Varn’s lessons because she lives close to the B & A Trail, a segment of the Greenway that runs between Annapolis and Baltimore and is a much loved venue in her community for local cyclists, runners, walkers, and more.
“The kids absolutely love the trail,” Varn says. “It’s kind of the backbone of our community, people use it in so many different ways. Older people may be some of its biggest users, all day long. I run with friends on it first thing in the morning, then I’m back out there working with kids.”
Some parents tell her that the B&A feels dangerous, with people riding by too fast. By teaching them the rules of the road and trail etiquette, “I let families know it’s a safe place to ride.”
Through the greenway, Varn is offering kids “a sense of agency,” she says. “Kids get driven around so much in a car that they don’t get a sense of where things are. And so many kids are fearful.” Varn and her assistants ride with the young cyclists to visit a fire station, a nursing home, even a frozen yogurt shop. “When they start to get their bearings, they’re so excited to tell me where things are and where we should turn. They realize, ‘I could get from here to here myself.” Especially for some of our older kids, the possibilities really open: ‘I can ride to FroYo!’ They could ride to their neighborhood pool for morning swim practice.”
