Cycle of good health

Taken from the Doon Plus | Original article can be found here

YOUNG WORLD | Cycle of good health

Doon Youth Center has re-introduced biking as a way of life amongst youngsters

by Anjali Nauriyal

Kunal Vasisth, volunteer at Doon Youth Center (DYC), cycled all the way from Chandigarh to Dehradun on his Trek 3700 bicycle to promote cycling and trips organized by the DYC for school students of the city.
“It was a grueling day of cycling, especially the climb from Kala Amb to Nahan. But at the end of the day, it’s pretty satisfying,” exults Kunal. Kunal got inspiration to start cycling again in 2005 in 1999 from Ken McRae, the founder and director of DYC.
“Initially it was only to lose weight, but now cycling has become

an integral part of my life. It just gives me a totally different perspective on things, people, places and issues” says Kunal. According to Ken, “Cycling is an amazing way to recreate and get out; doing something, especially in today’s environment where there are very few physical activities students can be involved in. It fits in perfectly as a natural way of building relationships with young people.”
The Doon Youth Center has been serving the city’s youth for the past nine years, offering free counselling and drop in facilities for youngsters on all weekdays. In the last few months, it has started a cycling club, open to all students from Dehradun schools, organizing short trips in and around the city. Students from St. Josephs Academy, Summer Valley School, St. Thomas and other schools have been regular part of the trips organized. “Going for these trips has been an amazing experience for me. I have been to places that I have never seen before,” says Shreya, a student of class VIII in SJA. Another class VIII student from SJA, Kevin remarks “I have always loved cycling and to do it as a group is great fun! All of us friends look forward to the trips on Sundays”
The trips are organized every alternate Sunday and the participants are only required to get their fully tuned bikes and water. Refreshments are provided by the DYC also leaving time for informal interactions and students from different schools mixing up getting to know each other. “After the rides, the students would just hang around at the centre, enjoy their cake and cold-drink, chatting with one another and playing table tennis. Sometimes we have to push them out,” smiles Manish, another volunteer at DYC. In the future, the Center also hopes to involve parents to get to cycle along with their kids. “It communicated so much to the child seeing dad coming along to cycle with him. Cycling serves as an excellent way to build and strengthen parent-child relationships,” explains Ken. With its commitment to serve the youth of the city, the DYC Cycling Club is another initiative that has been successfully attracting students to be a part of. Kunal, who is also the coordinator for the Cycling Club, exclaims “It is exciting to see the numbers increasing with each trip. We started with three and now for the last trip we had 35!” For any enquiries, one can call the DYC office at 0135-2710609 or drop-in to the centre between 4 and 8 in the evening.

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