A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
LACS students volunteer from Ithaca
Teachers helped students with their bikes
Pre-K students getting their tricycles ready
Tribal Police were on hand to monitor the traffic
Safety was the top priority – all students wore bike helmets
Some students practiced for weeks to handle their bikes
Teachers jogged with their students to make sure they wouldn’t fall
Aronhiaies pulled double duty as parent and administrator for the event
Family were invited to join the fun
Tricycles and bicycles swarmed the parking lot at the Akwesasne Freedom School in Raquette Point last Friday morning. Students and faculty participated in the school’s annual bike-a-thon to raise funds for each grade’s end of year activities to be organized by each class.
With the help of Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Police and volunteer students from Lehman Alternative Community School (LACS) based out of Ithaca, New York, students safely biked around the ‘horseshoe’ in Raquette.
One lap around the school is approximately 3/4 mile; the following is a breakdown of laps made by each grade in Pre-K through Grade 4 at the school: Pre-K – 13 laps, K – 33 laps, G1 – 33 laps, G2 – 18 laps, G3 – 26 laps and G4 – 48 laps.
Students in Grades 5-8 went offsite, starting around the old Pines Inn site and circling Route 37C to the St. Regis Mohawk School and back along Route 37.
Their teacher Jon Raimon brought the student volunteers from LACS to the Akwesasne Freedom School. LACS have been working with the AFS for 15 years, having made the connection from Dave Lehman and Tom Porter. In this 15th year of traveling to Akwesasne, 13 current students and 2 alumni made the long drive from Ithaca. Participants volunteer to join a service class at their alternative education school, which teaches them about the Mohawk Language Immersion program currently being operated here in Akwesasne. These students also learn about the cultural histories of other nations within the Haudenosaunee confederacy, as well as work on the Cayuga Share Farm in the Ithaca area.
“I love coming up from Ithaca, for me it is the combination of having made friends with students and adults here at the school. The other important part is making sure that outside communities know the importance of the mission of the Akwesasne Freedom School,” said Raimon. “It is especially gratifying work when former students of LACS continue the connections that have been made even after they have graduated from our programming.”
For more photos from the AFS Bike-A-Thon visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/indiantime
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