The organizations began their partnership in September and the first half of their year together has already exceeded expectations as they recently completed their first big project.
Starting in the summer, Jacques and Andrew Burnell, the CBC program director, met to outline a curriculum where students could use the bicycle center to build skills and positive characteristics as part of their program.
One of outcome the program took place on Jan. 18, when Burnell, Jacques, and several students brought more than 50 bikes down to Boston to donate to the nonprofit Bikes-Not-Bombs group.
The bikes, built by the students, will be sent to Nairobi, Kenya, to be donated and used in everyday activities.
“The best part of this project was donating the bikes. I liked seeing that what we did were being used for something,” said Colby Heffernan, a ninth-grade student who went on the trip to Boston.
The students of the Alternative Pathways program go to the CBC two days a week to repair bikes and learn skills. Starting in early fall, they began working on the Boston bike donation project.
“It’s not just an alternative program, it’s a real school, with real experiences,”said Burnell.
The APC program takes in students from other districts as well as from Biddeford.
Jayehvon Keane, a new student in the program, travels more than an hour every day to attend the APC program.
“The best part are the people, the people for sure,” said Keane about the program. “There is a lot of teamwork involved.”
APC is an alternative schooling program based in the Biddeford school district. There are about 40 students who have a range of credit needs and do a range of activities to gain credits.
“We emphasis an open curriculum and a lot of freedom. We want the kids to be able to learn and get their credits the way that is best for them,” Jacques said.
Students in the APC differ in how many credits they need and specifically what they are doing to achieve their credits. The program provides many options, such as working, doing volunteer work, or participating in programs like the CBC as part of their schooling.
The CBC and APC partnership offers many paths for students.
In addition to working on bikes, students can garden, work on art projects, and obtain physical edcuation credits by exercising upstairs in the CBC building.
The APC and CBC partnership program is planning more projects continuing into the spring.
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less