Red Dragons team up for kindergarten bike program

07/01/2025

On the way to getting a bikes program up and running for kindergarteners in Marathon, N.Y., physical education teacher Sydney Jennison ’20, M ’23 made a new friend.

In late 2022, Shirley Reome Cahill ’66, a SUNY Cortland instructor emerita of physical education, had read an article about Jennison in The Cortland Standard, in which the young teacher expressed a wish to begin a bikes program at Appleby Elementary School in the Marathon Central School District.

The article was mainly about Jennison bringing her class to visit the Marathon Volunteer Fire Department, where she has been a volunteer since age 16.

“My students went to the fire station to learn about fire prevention, and I was there at one station in my firefighting gear,” Jennison said.

“The Cortland Standard had asked what were my next steps — with firefighting, with teaching — and I said, ‘I’d like to get a bikes program for the students at Appleby Elementary School.’”

It turns out Cahill read the article in the local newspaper.

Although Jennison’s college years had overlapped with Cahill’s university teaching, the two subsequently first encountered one another through a shared beautician.

“(Jennison) talked about a bikes program that she was getting started,” Cahill recalled. “I think I texted her that I was so impressed with that.”

Cahill learned that Jennison — when not teaching, volunteering as a firefighter, coaching varsity boys’ golf, varsity girls soccer, running the Appleby Archery Program for middle schoolers or supervising the Appleby Activity Program mornings before school started — was buying bikes at garage sales and fixing them up.

“I thought it was going to take a very long time that way,” Cahill said.

One day, Jennison’s principal asked her if she had applied for a grant for bikes, noting there was a check for a large amount of money on his desk.

After some research and background checking, her principal, Mr. Hillis, found out the source of the gift, a Cortland Community Foundation grant with the university professor as the source. The school accepted the gift, leaving Jennison to decide how to spend it.

“After some research, I came across a program called All Kids Bike,” Jennison said.

Founded in 2017 in partnership with Strider Bikes™, the Strider Education Foundation created All Kids Bike with a mission to teach every child in America how to ride a bike in kindergarten physical education class. The program cost is supported by the foundation and local donations.

Jennison bought into the program and took the training. The grant purchased 24 kindergarten-child sized bikes, 24 children’s helmets, one adult bike and helmet set for the teacher, and a miniaturized, 24-bike rack.

Jennison assembled the kit bikes last fall during staff days, assisted by the school custodian, her father, brother and an Appleby Elementary physical education coworker, Nathan Sigerson ’23.

Over five weeks during June, Jennison taught the children in groups of 15 in five 30-minute lessons. A helper enabled her to properly adjust seats on 15 bikes and work with 15 kids as they first learned to push forward and briefly balance a bike with their feet on detachable training bars. Next, with actual pedals in place, the youngsters tried riding for themselves.

“A lot of them were naturals, where others might need someone alongside to encourage and help them along the way,” Jennison said.

At the start of the class, approximately five out of 15 students knew how to ride a bike, Jennison said. By the end, that number grew to 12 per class.

The final week, Jennison reached out to Cahill with a video, pictures of the tots on their bikes and an invitation.

Cahill arrived on June 20 with her son, David.

“She just observed, and her son took pictures of the two classes that day,” Jennison said. “At the end, she wanted to talk to them about biking and showed them her bicycle earrings.”

Jennison graciously introduced the important guest.

“I love to bicycle myself, I do it every day,” Cahill said. “And it’s such a cool thing. You’ve got such a great program. And I’m so glad that I got to come visit.”

The children were enchanted by Cahill. The retired college educator in turn expressed wonder at the entire school’s very natural and unscripted expressions of welcome and gratitude.

“Biking will help them grow up to be strong, healthy and responsible in their home, school, community and this great big world they want to experience,” Cahill said.

Jennison said she still has more than half of the Cahill family’s grant money left over.

“I plan to get bikes for the older (elementary level) students so we can teach them the rules of the road, and other important biking things that you wouldn’t necessarily get in a kindergarten physical education class,” Jennison said.

There’s a little more to Jennison’s story. She has always felt pulled in two directions, career-wise. Her mother, Sandra Jennison, once taught Sydney in 11th grade and still teaches in the Marathon district. Her sister, Riley Jennison ’23, also teaches kindergarten at Appleby Elementary. Sydney’s father, longtime firefighter Robert Jennison, is a captain in the City of Cortland Fire Department.

“Around the time the school got the grant, I had an opportunity to leave teaching to become a firefighter in the city of Cortland,” Jennison said. “And I ended up turning it down because I love what I do right now, and I know I’m in the right place. It was an eye opening moment when that check came, like, ‘…This is where I am supposed to be right now.’”

Select an image below to begin a slide show