Cycle Exhibition

We went to 401 Richmond for an exhibition on April, 17,2013. We met at Dundas West subway station, and took the train to Spadina, and then took a streetcar to Queen St. The place is near Chinatown which is cool. Once there, we met with Aaron Macques, who explained about the exhibition that we were about to see. It was called Youths Gearing Up for Change. Aaron also introduced Charlie’s Freewheels to us, and told us about his friend, Charlie, who died in 2007. Charlie’s Freewheels was founded by Charlie’s friends who wanted to remember him and help other youths enjoy everything about bicycles. Aaron also invited us to visit their club and join their activities.

Aaron was talking to us

After the introductions, we walked into the lobby of 401 Richmond. We had to stay there for a while for our activities because there was a meeting inside the gallery we wanted to visit, so we were not allowed to go inside. As we were waiting, Aaron handed out some maps which showed specific cycling routes. We were given the task of finding on the map where we live and where we go to school, and then to draw a little point beside them. Then, we had to find the way for us to ride a bicycle from home to school. Once we finished doing that, we were told to imagine what we would see if we were going to ride our bicycles to school from home, and to draw the imaginary picture on a big blank paper. Me, Emma and JiaJia were in the same group. We got two different colors of markers. We drew that we were behind a person, and we were riding at the same time while we were watching the person. And there was also a very large road under us. It was a fun picture! Everyone else had nice pictures, we did very well!

We waited for a long time, and were finally allowed to go inside the gallery, even though the meeting wasn’t quite finished. So, we had to be very quiet. We went around the other entrance so as to avoid bothering that people having the meeting. While doing that, we got distracted by a pretty cute souvenir store. We looked around at the goods. After a few minutes, the meeting was finally over, and we went into the gallery.

 There was a board on the wall which had a big title, “Opportunity”. The event description was, “Most youth who came into the program did not have bikes at home. Some youth had shared with their siblings. For others, their old bikes were too small or had been stolen. Some youth had never learned to ride in the first place”. Aaron told us that at Charlie’s Freewheels, everyone in the program gets the opportunity to make their own bikes for free. That is what this program is about. If we participated, we would get all the parts for bikes and learn all the operations and procedures of building a bike. We could even design what kind of bicycles we wanted. It was very interesting. They also exhibited the general parts that we will need to learn about, and put together, in order to make an entire working bike.

Parts of bikes

There weren’t so much exhibits to see, but I really feel that the program that they have is real useful, especially for those people who love riding bikes so much. Thanks Aaron, for introducing the program to us!

Riding bikes is a type of sport, which would make us healthy. Riding bikes can also help us save money, since driving those cars with expensive gasoline will cost a bomb. Riding bikes can help reduce pollution, since driving cars produces too much carbon emission. Riding bikes can also help us make friends, by joining cycling groups such as Cycle Toronto, becoming volunteers or members, and meet more people! In a word, bikes are awesome. Let’s ride a bike!!

Written by: Jessica Wang

Edited by: Lynda Young
Posted by: Jessica Wang

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