Let’s Move! Robin Schepper spreads the First Lady’s message

It started with one bike rack at one school. Robin Schepper was “just your basic type-A mom” when she found out that her son’s school had a no-bikes policy. First, she asked around and found no good reason for the policy; no one could tell her why it was in place. Next, she asked and received permission to have a bike rack installed — if she could get one. She did. Easy. “And it wasn’t just filled with kids bikes,” she says, “it was filled with teacher’s bikes too.” Over the next few years she worked with the Safe Routes to School to promote healthy travel options for kids.

Today, Robin Schepper is the Executive Director of the First Lady’s Let’s Move Campaign, an initiative with the goal of “solving the problem of obesity within a generation.” Schepper was introduced by IMBA‘s Jenn Dice, who pledged to get 30,000 children moving on Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. Schepper spoke to the National Bike Summit audience today about how education programs and infrastructure to increase physical activity can address critical problems such as diabetes, children’s performance in school, and community development.

On a humorous note, she did let it slip that the White House might not be winning a Bicycle Friendly Business award anytime soon: “I don’t bike to work now because there isn’t a shower in the White House.”

Here’s some footage of the presentation:

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