Traverse City’s Eastern Elementary, Earth Day, and My Buddy Caden

This story was originally published in the Traverse City Record-Eagle.

Eastern Elementary has a special place in my heart. My boys are Star alumni, and I get nostalgic every time I ride past the school.

I think of the good ol’ days of biking from our home on Washington Street, through the Civic Center and NMC, to school with Carter and Jameson. As I cruised by Eastern last week, I saw my buddy Caden’s bike parked in the bike rack out front, bringing back all these beautiful memories.

Caden’s bike in the Eastern bike rack has been a familiar sight for the past four years. In fact, Caden, now a fourth-grader, has biked to school every day since moving to Traverse City from Austin, Texas, when he was in the first grade. Every. Single. Day.

Caden understands that only some of his classmates are as lucky as him to live in a bike-friendly neighborhood near school. Living just a half mile from Eastern with a safe bike route makes biking to school daily a lot easier for him. I get that. He gets that too.

Caden also has rad encouraging parents, Casey and Marissa, who like bikes and model healthy choices. Thanks, mom and dad.

The Moore family has yet to choose the school car line for four years, even when the weather doesn’t cooperate. And to me, that’s something to celebrate.

“It’s faster,” Caden replied when I asked why he doesn’t drive or walk to school. With two boys, I know that a few extra minutes to sleep on school days means a lot.

Living near school with supportive parents and a safe place to ride has changed the odds in Caden’s favor. So has attending Eastern Elementary.

Thanks to dedicated teachers, staff, and the leadership of principal Biz Ruskowski (congrats on your upcoming retirement, and thank you for all you’ve done for our kids, Biz!), Eastern Elementary has a long history of strong bike culture.

During the fall and spring, bike trains roll in from the surrounding neighborhoods, often overflowing the school’s bike racks. This is one of my favorite things to see.

Part of Eastern’s bike-tastic culture is the 100% Club. This is a club I made up a few years ago to celebrate Traverse City kids who bike to school every day of the year. CJ Forsyth, Tripp Bevier, and Jack and Max Matchett are, among others, proud members of the 100% Club.

Actually, CJ, now an 8th grader, lives across the street from Caden and helped inspire his bike-to-school streak. I can imagine Caden as a first grader watching CJ hop on his bike to ride to Eastern and CJ saying something like, “Welcome to the neighborhood, Texas. This is how we do things here. You coming?”

Three years later, Caden is now a big kid on the block. He’s the one now leading by example as the younger kids on the street watch him hop on his bike every morning to pedal to school.

More kids on bikes and bikes in school bike racks mean fewer cars in the car line, which leads to healthier kids — and a healthier planet.

With Earth Day this Saturday, it’s important to acknowledge not only the eco-friendly choices made by our young people and their families but the efforts of the City of Traverse City to make these choices possible.

Specifically, the current efforts by the City to increase housing options on our eight square miles to allow more opportunities for families like Caden’s to live near school.

I fully support these efforts, including the Planning Commission’s zoning reform goals discussed at their meeting this past Tuesday.

More neighborhood homes near our neighborhood schools are critical if we want to take meaningful climate action and support more happy, healthy, ready-to-learn kids like Caden.

Happy Earth Day, Traverse City. And keep going, Caden. I’m proud of you, buddy.