For years, Iesha Troutman-Cameron proposed the installation of a bike rack at Brookside Elementary School in Baldwin — prompted by her son, who wanted to ride his bike to school.
Her son, Chase, suggested the rack because the school, at 940 E. Stanton Ave, lacked a place to store his bike once he rode it there.
“Where am I gonna park my bike, Mom?” Chase repeatedly asked Troutman-Cameron, the recording secretary for Brookside’s PTA.
Sparked by her son's question, Troutman-Cameron began asking the PTA for help obtaining a bike rack during the 2024-25 school year. Her efforts finally paid off when the departing fifth grade class donated one to the school. The bike rack and a dedication plaque cost about $900 in total. The rack was installed on June 25 just inside the school’s main dismissal gate, outside the K-2 pickup area.
“For me, it was natural. He said he wanted it,” Troutman-Cameron said of her son. “We scoped it out, and we realized the system wasn’t in place. So, then I kind of just mentioned it to the PTA, brought it up at every meeting. And it took a couple of years, but for me, it’s here. It was second nature mommin’. That’s it, just mommin’.”
With students now having a place to park their bicycles, the PTA turned its attention to providing students with lessons on how to safely ride to school.
During Brookside PTA's first meeting of the school year, on Sept. 15, the PTA paired its regular business with a bicycle safety presentation and a bike rodeo aimed at encouraging students to ride while teaching them how to do so safely.
Danielle Blanchard-St. Louime, the PTA president, said Troutman-Cameron’s advocacy for her son led the organization to consider how it could help all Brookside students ride safely.
“The core mission of PTA is advocacy,” Blanchard-St. Louime said, “standing up for your child, having a voice, using a voice and making sure that it’s heard in the environment where our children spend the most time.”
The PTA meeting built upon that advocacy by giving students and families a chance to learn about bicycle safety.
“We want students to be able to ride their bikes to school, but we don’t want a push back from the community where they’re riding in traffic, and, you know, things you see all over social media,” Jeanette Rottkamp, Brookside's principal, said. “We want to encourage kids to be outside, but we want them to do it safely. That’s really the need for where this came out.”
During the Sept. 15 PTA meeting, held in the school gym, Aisha Darby, the AAA Northeast outreach specialist, led families through bicycle safety basics. About 20 to 25 students and their families attended, along with 10 teachers and staff members. Students learned that bicyclists must follow all traffic rules, and they were told how to inspect their bicycles by checking the ABCs — air, brakes and chains.
They also learned how to perform the 2-2-2 helmet check. Starting at the forehead, bicyclists should be able to fit two fingers between their eyebrows and the front edge of the helmet to grant protection without blocking their vision. Next, riders should make a peace sign with their fingers and check if helmet straps properly form a V around each ear. Finally, they should be able to fit two fingers between their chin and the buckled strap.
New York state requires bicyclists under 14 to wear approved helmets, while Nassau County mandates riders under 18 to wear them.
“You are sharing the street with a car, so you have to follow all the same rules,” Darby said, adding, "300,000 children end up in the emergency room as a result of not properly wearing a helmet, not wearing a helmet at all, or just being involved in a crash.”
Nassau County Police Department First Precinct Problem-Oriented Policing Officer Vincent Conlon reinforced Darby’s plea for safety, reminding children to watch out for cars entering and leaving driveways and to remain alert while riding on sidewalks.
“Nobody’s going to protect you but yourself and the people that you’re riding with,” Conlon said.
The rodeo lesson then shifted outdoors, where students were given an opportunity to put bicycle safety into practice at four stations. At the first station, students received free helmets provided by the Nassau County Traffic Safety Board, and at the second, they practiced hand signals. At the third station, Tommy Cuccias, of Valley Stream Bicycle in Lynbrook, offered free bicycle inspections and a 10 percent discount on future repairs if they brought their completed safety checklist inspection slips to the store. At the final station, participants received certificates, reflectors, flashlightsand a folder with coloring pages and handouts.
Sherine Fraser, a PTA member whose daughter, Samantha, is a Brookside fifth grader, said that she hoped similar programs would accompany future meetings.
“I think we need to keep having programs like this at the PTA meetings,” Fraser, who's also a Brookside alumna, said. “I think it’s wonderful. It encourages engagement, community involvement, and I think it’s just a wonderful way for kids to also stay physically fit.”
Rottkamp said the program reflected Baldwin’s six Cs: collaboration, creativity, character, civics, community and critical thinking.
“We want students to be good citizens,” Rottkamp said. “And again, by teaching them safety out in the community, it aligns to the work that we do throughout the school.”
