All 52 stationary bikes at Allstar Fitness in West Seattle were put into non-stop action on Thursday night, Feb. 17, as local bicycle enthusiasts crammed the spin room full and pushed their cardio limits for three hours to raise money to bring the Cascade Bicycle Club Major Taylor Project to Chief Sealth High School and Denny Middle School.

“I didn’t expect this many people,” said Yonas Kiflemariam, a 17-year-old student at Global Connections High School in Seatac who has become an avid and accomplished cyclist having gone through the program. “I’m just so happy, so excited they are helping Major Taylor.”

The goal was to raise $5,000 to bring the after-school program to West Seattle schools this spring and summer. Ed Ewing, program director of Major Taylor, said he estimated the total raised would end up between $6,000 and $10,000.

“In its truest essence, it (the Major Taylor Project) is a project to reach underserved areas and underserved communities and underserved teens with the sport and recreation of cycling,” said Ewing, longtime competitive cyclist and member of the Cascade Bicycle Club. “The tagline we use is, ‘Empowering youth through cycling.’”

Major Taylor was an African-American cyclist who won the world one-mile cycling sprint championship in 1899. Taylor was not allowed to compete in many of the major American races at that time due to the color of his skin, but the first year he was allowed to compete in the U.S. sprint championships in 1900, he won.

The program was started in 2009, the brainchild of then King County Executive Ron Sims (now working in Washington D.C. as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). According to Ewing, Sims met a man in Portland who was doing a Major Taylor project in Chicago and it peaked his interest. Sims found similar programs across the nation, from Los Angeles to Atlanta, and decided Seattle should have one as well.

Sims contacted Cascade, Cascade contacted Ewing about developing the program, funds were set aside from King County and Cascade and the rest is history.

Today, Global Connections High School in Seatac, the Yes! Foundation (along with Evergreen High School) in White Center and Rainier Vista Boys and Girls Club in Rainier Valley all have popular Major Taylor programs with over 150 students involved, and soon West Seattle will join the club.

“Me, myself, had experienced a lot of the same feelings Ron Sims had, being an African American myself and growing up in Minneapolis, MN and loving cycling and playing hockey and my brother playing golf,” Ewing said. “You know, you don’t see a lot of people that look like you in those sports.”

“It’s (cycling) just not on teens’ radar, and if it wasn’t for a program like this it … would never be on their radar. Those traditional sports like football, basketball, soccer are easy, they are easy to access,” Ewing continued. “That’s what the kids see on TV and it’s easy to emulate.”

Ewing said another important aspect to the program is providing the means for underserved youth access to good bikes.

“More than 70 percent of the kids at these high schools are on free or reduced lunch and that’s something that really shook me to the core,” he said.

Essentially, the Major Taylor Project is broken into two phases, Ewing said. The first ten weeks kids learn about the history of Major Taylor, learn bike safety and agility skills and go out once a week after school for two and a half to three hour rides (on bikes provided by Cascade). The rides start out local, then get longer and reach parts of Seattle many of the kids have never seen or experienced. It is not uncommon for kids from Seatac to make the trek to Pike Place Market, using designated bike routes with the supervision of an instructor.

Phase two is the Earn-a-Bike program where Cascade Bicycle Club provides the kids with a used bike. Over the next five weeks the kids learn how to rebuild and maintain their own bike and turn their used frame into a top notch ride with new components. They learn from the certified bike mechanics at Cascade and are given a helmet, bike lock, set of rear and front lights and their refurbished bike at the end of the program.

For kids that want to take it to the next level, Ewing says Cascade encourages (but never pressures) graduates of the program to take part in Cascade’s annual Seattle to Portland (STP) ride – a 200-plus mile trek. The first year nine kids made the trip, then 15 in 2010 and Mulling hopes over 20 kids will be involved this summer.

“It was the best experience ever because I had never done like 200 miles on a bike,” Kiflemariam said. “It was just very challenging.”

Nigatu Abdi, a 17-year-old junior at Global Connections HS in Seatac attends most of the training rides leading up to the STP but hasn’t done the trip yet. Instead, he’s focusing on improving things locally.

For his junior project, Abdi said he is working with the Seatac City Council to get more bike lanes in the area, making bike transit a safe alternative mode of transportation.

“It’s pretty cool to see them start biking to school, biking to their jobs, biking on the weekend with friends, biking to soccer practice or whatever,” Ewing said. “It’s pretty cool to see the program in action.”

Rick Harwood, principal at Global Connections since its inception six years ago attended the Spinathon as well.

“It’s been a great experience for so many of our students because they get to participate in an activity that they wouldn’t otherwise get to be in,” he said. “Riding bikes is something they all want to do but they don’t have the resources, they don’t have the know-how and this provides them with that…”

“It expands their horizons and the enthusiasm builds in our school community,” Harwood said. “We started out the first year with about 12 and now we have 20 to 25 students each season wanting to get involved.”

“The cycling community in West Seattle and at Allstar is pretty huge and they are pretty supportive,” Ewing said. “People get the message, they get what we are trying to do because they are cyclists and they have the opportunity to create some structure for kids who normally wouldn’t get to enjoy that – to have an opportunity to help create that is pretty powerful. The response has been overwhelming.”

For more information on Cascade Bicycle Club’s Major Taylor Project, please visit http://www.cbcef.org/youth-major-taylor.html.

Sponsors of the Spinathon included Cascade Bicycle Club, Allstar Fitness, Fox Wilmar Productions, Elliot Bay Brewery, Cascade Designs, West Seattle GNC, Blackett Body Basics, Boeing and Carincross & Hempelmann.