Trips for Kids Marin

Through Trips for Kids Marin programs, our Bay Area annual goal is to positively transform the lives of at least 2,000 underserved kids.

Our Trail Rides use the bicycle to challenge kids physically, mentally, emotionally and socially with the specific benefits of:
• Bringing out their best
• Helping them gain confidence and build self-esteem
• Learn safe biking skills
• Develop an awareness and appreciation for nature
• Experiencing the life-long joys and benefits of exercise and healthy choices

Our Earn-a-Bike and Mobile Bike Workshops programs encourages our participants to learn practical skills, achieve, lead, and contribute. Helping kids have consistent, positive, supportive and creative educational opportunities benefits the community as well. Our programs create meaningful connections among people and foster positive growth on a community level.

We challenge kids to take pride in learning a new skill and completing a project. These beginning lessons in personal responsibility and the rewards of hard work are invaluable. And they’re fun! The Earn-a-Bike and Mobile Bike Workshops help the kids learn that hard work can bring success. Other benefits include:
• Leadership – Mentoring younger participants
• Achievement – Hard work rewarded with a bike of their own, as well as bikes for family and friends
• Learning to Give Back - Providing inexpensive bikes and repair services to the surrounding neighborhood
• Empowerment - Self-reliance and confidence
* Practical skills like design, math, physics and mechanics

Our strategy is simple: Use the simple bicycle as the vehicle to positively change children’s lives through experiential learning and having fun. We execute this strategy in our programs:

The Trail Rides provide outdoor adventures six days each week, year-round, in State and National parks. We provide the leadership, gear, and skills instruction.
Our Earn-a-Bike Program provides a safe place for youth to go after school. Throughout the year, five days a week, trained staff offers underserved youth hands-on lessons in bike mechanics, job-skills training, and the chance to earn a bike of their own.
TFKM’s long-tenured Mobile Bike Workshops' instructor brings safe riding instruction and basic bike mechanics to after-school settings in Marin for 12-14 week sessions throughout the year.
Whether on the trail or in the classroom, the value of learning new skills as a catalyst for growth cannot be overstated.

Essential Components of All Programs
Personal Development: The physical and mental challenges of a day in the bike saddle tests kids’ physical and mental limits, inevitably boosts their confidence and enhances their determination to reach goals. The Earn-a-Bike Program fosters growth as valuable job skills are learned, team-work becomes second nature, and satisfaction comes from earning a bike through hard work.
Environmental Education and Stewardship: Environmental stewardship is a cornerstone of all Trips for Kids Marin programs. Ride leaders utilize every teachable moment to discuss environmental topics. Youth in our Earn-a-Bike workshops learn that recycling bikes reduces waste, lowers consumption of resources, and prevents landfills from expanding. Seeing our actions helps kids connect to their own lives.
Healthy living matters: Targeted health, fitness, and nutrition curricula give youth tools for long-term wellness. Kids feel first-hand that exercise can be joyful, and being fit and eating well (or not eating well) correlates to getting up the hill - and achieving their goals.

Trips for Kids Marin is one of the nation’s most well-established and highly-respected youth development organizations. Our award-winning programs are all FREE to youth; all participants are low-income, 10-17 years old. Since 1988, we have developed and refined our operational model to innovatively transform children’s lives utilizing the following capabilities:
• Excellent staff including long-tenured key staff members
• Long, successful track record
• Stable leadership
• Strong, debt-free financial position
• Bicycle industry connections
• Hundreds of volunteers
• Strong Board leadership
• School, community and youth-agency partners

Trips for Kids Marin collaborates closely with a wide range of schools and youth development programs in the Bay Area. Since we began, we have worked with over 400 agencies. Through our ongoing outreach and solid reputation we reach and serve many new organizations each year; these are in addition the long list of our loyal, long-term clients.

Our capabilities have been widely recognized through the years and have led to numerous awards and media recognition. In 1996, founder, Marilyn Price was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame; in 2001 Marilyn received the Points of Light Award; in 2003 the Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award from the Marin County Human Rights Commission; in 2006 she was inducted into the Marin Women's Hall of Fame; in 2008 the Jefferson Award sponsored by the San Francisco Chronicle and CBS 5 TV; and in 2010 the Community Leadership Award by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. In 2011, Mountain Bike Action Magazine named Marilyn one of “the 25 Most Influential People in Mountain Biking”. In October, 2012, Marilyn received the Humanitarian Service Award, one of four given each year by her alma mater, the University of Michigan, for her distinguished work with at-risk youth through Trips for Kids. In Feb 2014 Bicycle Retailer chose Marilyn as one of "50 Influential Women Driving the Business" & in Sept 2014 the Outdoor Industries Women’s Coalition awarded Ms Price the Pioneering Woman Award, and in March 2015, Marilyn was named a "CNN Hero."

In 2018:
We led 160 rides for 1900 at-risk Bay Area children. Participants came from Marin, San Francisco, the East Bay, and the South Bay, and were a diverse group comprising 40% Hispanic, 19% African-American, 18% Asian, 13% Caucasian, and 10% Others. 64% of the participants were male; 36% were female.
TFKM fulfills a vital need in the community that is not met by any other organization in the manner or on a scale comparable to our programs. Teachers and agency leaders frequently state that their students who participate in TFKM Trail Rides have greater confidence that carries over to the classroom with improved academic performance, better grades and healthier, happier social interactions. For many reasons, physical education is not a part of many schools’ curricula. Teachers tell us they choose Trips for Kids Marin rides to provide a fun, affordable program through which her students can earn PE graduation credits while having fun.

Earn-a-Bike Program
Last year, the Earn-a-Bike curriculum was updated to 8-week mechanical instruction sessions and served 65 participants. They all earned bikes and a copy of the Park Tool Bike Mechanic Manual. This group comprised 72% Hispanic, 8% African-American, and 20% Caucasian. In addition to job and skill training, students participated in educational and recreational field trips and trail rides. Earn-a-Bike is also a career pathway for young people. After mastering technical skills of our beginner, intermediate and advanced curriculum, our Re-Cyclery bike shop will provide mechanic internships for youth graduates.

Mobile Bike Workshops
Our instructor brought the workshops to 6 Marin County after-school facilities, providing 88 educational bike classes to 148 students. Class curricula include safe riding skills, correct tool usage, mechanical systems, how to correct and/or repair bikes. The bicycle’s role in students’ health and the health of the planet are also discussion points. Kids have fun while gaining knowledge, a sense independence, achievement - new confidence and new skills which fosters a life-long love of biking.