April 30, 2020

For 64 years, May has been celebrated as National Bike Month and a chance to celebrate the health, economic, environmental, and social benefits of cycling. In many areas, Bike Month is an inaugural event that ushers in summer activities and gives us a way to enjoy progressively warmer weather on two wheels.

However, getting outside and into the saddle has a different feel this year, due to social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19. And it’s caused us all to change gears in how we celebrate Bike Month.

The League of American Bicyclists has announced a new theme for Bike Month 2020: “Bikes Unite.” This theme highlights that even while maintaining distance from other people, we’re united in our pursuit of physical and mental health through bicycling, while remaining committed to keeping our communities safe.

At Kittelson, we are responding to the need to be creative in how we celebrate National Bike Month during COVID-19 by debuting our own Self-Care & Wellness spin.

During COVID-19, Turn Bike Month Into Wellness Month

Under normal circumstances, Kittelson staff engage in a friendly competition every May to encourage one another to trade in our gas pedals for bicycle pedals. We log miles, post photos, and engage in friendly banter. Between our two bike challenges in 2019, we collectively logged 17,915 miles.

This year, we’re maintaining the “competitive integrity” of our bike challenge by hosting a 2020 Self-Care & Wellness Challenge. We are encouraging all staff who are interested to take part in this challenge and earn points for various physical and mental wellness activities. Activities that are worth points include:

  • Going for a walk
  • Drinking 8 glasses of water in a day
  • Biking inside or outside
  • Dancing
  • Calling a relative or friend
  • Getting 10,000 steps”¦ without leaving home
  • Yoga
  • Lifting weights
  • Having a screen-free hour
  • Gardening/houseplant care
  • Playing a musical instrument
  • Picking up a new hobby or art project

At the end of each week, we’re distributing a survey asking our staff to indicate which activities they participated in, and if they met the wellness goal they set for that week. This goal could be exercising, making healthy meals, spending more time with family, volunteering, or anything else that promotes physical or mental wellness. We encourage your organization to try something similar!

Make sure you are following Kittelson on Facebook and Instagram to catch our self-care and wellness photos from the month of May! We’ll share updates throughout the month to let you know which activities are making the biggest difference for us.

We also encourage you to post your own Bike Month or Self-Care & Wellness photos (and tag us so we can see them!). The official hashtag for the month being used by the League of American Bicyclists is #BikesUnite, so we encourage you to use that as well as you post your bicycling photos.

We’re in this together. Here’s to a unique, creative, and intentional month!