The Official Blog of Communities at Oshkosh North

Biking is a great source of healthy fun and transportation, but if you aren't safe while biking it can be very scary especially as a child. 1 out of every 3 non-fatal injuries are 5-19-year-olds and are bicycle-related according to the Department of Disease Control and Prevention s article. This stat is why it's important to teach kids young, so they don't get injured while biking. Ashley Tracy, Tyler DeBruin from ECWRPC and I are hosting an event on May 9th 4:00-6:30 at the UWO Kolf Center. Our goal is to teach children grades K-5 proper bike safety and bike maintenance.  We will also be hosting exciting games and competitions like the slow roll, and The Verve Cube and Hot Dog Charlie's will be supplying music and food. There will also be a prize give away. The Bike Rodeo is very important for our community. In the Midwest, obesity is a huge issue so teaching kids from a young age to bike is important, but we cannot do that unless children know how to bike...

Junior, Autumn Kephart, is partnering with Damascus Road to create awareness and raise funds to help fight human trafficking in our community. Damascus Road is a non-profit organization that focuses on helping to locate and help victims of human trafficking, specifically women over the age of 18. According to nationalhumantrafficking.org, in 2017 there were 91 cases of human trafficking in Wisconsin alone, 8,524 nationwide. Milwaukee was tied with Las Vegas for the number of young people rescued during FBI raids, according to theguardian.com. Autumn and Damascus Road are working towards creating a large event in order to raise the maximum amount of funds possible to help the young victims of human trafficking. The money will go towards not only helping to locate these young women but also towards relocating them. As reported by polarisproject.org, the number of human trafficking cases has increased by 13% in 2017. This is becoming a large problem in our community, but people like Autum...

29% of the youth ( ages 3-17) in the Fox Valley are overweight or obese, according to the website the Weight of the Fox Valley. For this next semester, I am partnered with Dani Stolley, founder and executive director of Growing Oshkosh. Growing Oshkosh is a local urban farm that is branching out and giving back to the community by creating school gardens at local public elementary schools. The goal of school gardens is to encourage healthy eating in our community. By creating gardens at elementary schools we are not only educating children how to create their own gardens, but teaching them healthy eating habits at a young age.