Media Advisory: Lose the Training Wheels Bike Camp this week

June 16, 2008

WHAT:
Lose the Training Wheels Bike Camp co-sponsored by Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Down Syndrome Association of Central Ohio
  
WHEN:
Monday, June 16 through Friday, June 20, 2008*
8:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m.
*Best media opportunities are Wednesday, June 18 and Thursday, June 19 as many children will be transitioning from roller bikes to two-wheeled bicycles
   
WHERE:  
The Ohio State University
Recreation and Physical Activity Center (North Gym)
Building 246
337 W. 17th Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 
Lose the Training Wheels is a training program that teaches children with disabilities how to transition from a bike with training wheels to independence on a standard bike. This year marks the first time the national program, in existence for approximately 10 years, has traveled to Columbus.

Forty children and young adults, 7-20-years-old, will participate in a week-long camp that helps them learn how to ride a bike without training wheels. Most of the camp participants are current and former patients from Nationwide Childrens Hospital and are eager to learn the ins and outs of bike riding.

Dr. Richard E. Klein, an engineer from Illinois and creator of Lose the Training Wheels, travels with his staff every summer to conduct camps across the nation.  With a proper environment and training with adapted bikes, children who are disabled are taught how to ride and transition to a conventional bike within a five-day period. To learn more information about the Lose the Training Wheels program, visit www.losethetrainingwheels.org.

CONTACT PRIOR TO EVENT: 
Erin Pope / Mary Ellen Fiorino
Nationwide Childrens Hospital
Marketing and Public Relations
(614) 355-0495

CONTACT AT EVENT:
Michelle Byars
Nationwide Childrens Hospital
OTPT Program Manager
(614) 719-9536

About Nationwide Children's Hospital

Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report’s 2023-24 list of “Best Children’s Hospitals,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of America’s largest not-for-profit free-standing pediatric health care systems providing unique expertise in pediatric population health, behavioral health, genomics and health equity as the next frontiers in pediatric medicine, leading to best outcomes for the health of the whole child. Integrated clinical and research programs, as well as prioritizing quality and safety, are part of what allows Nationwide Children’s to advance its unique model of care. Nationwide Children’s has a staff of more than 14,000 that provides state-of-the-art wellness, preventive and rehabilitative care and diagnostic treatment during more than 1.7 million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded free-standing pediatric research facilities. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org.