Phys-ed teachers bike 140 miles to visit every Atlantis Charter High student

As teachers, Bethany Daniels and Nathan Mello miss their students and want them to know it. As health and physical education teachers, they look to set a good fitness/wellness example for those same students.

The Atlantis Charter School phys-ed duo united their missions into one project recently. Hopping on their bicycles, they visited over the course of eight days (spread from May 6 to June 2) the homes of Atlantis Charter’s 268 grade 9-12 students who, due to COVID-19 concerns, have been locked out of their final three months of the 2019-2020 high school year.

Atlantis Charter, in Fall River, serves four communities, Fall River, Westport, Swansea and Somerset. The AC cycling duo designated one day on the bikes to take care of business in Westport, one day for Somerset/Swansea, and six days for Fall River. They saw 153 students (and 86 parents/guardians) in person

“Just to be able to see the students and the smiles on their faces,” said Daniels, a triathlete and five-time rider in the Pan-Mass Challenge 192-mile fundraising bike ride from Sturbridge to Provincetown. “They miss school. You could see it in their faces.”

In some cases, even when the students were unable to be home for the cyclists’ visit, they left snacks and/or refreshments. They made signs. “It’s nice to feel like they miss us, too,” Mello said.

The bike-to-the-student idea struck Daniels, she said, one day while she was conducting a Google Meet session on her computer. National Physical Education Week had just passed. The National Bike to School Day was approaching. “I said I can’t just sit here any more,” Daniels recalled saying to herself. “I think we need to ride.”

Since we is plural, Daniels obviously was not planning a solo mission. She approached Mello, who interestingly does pedicabbing in Newport as a part-time summer gig. He said it took him about a half-second to jump aboard, even though the specs of what they were jumping aboard were not laid out.

Getting the student addresses from the office was easy enough. Planning the attack was a different story. Daniels tried to figure it out on her own. Then she checked out a few apps. No luck. One day as she was pondering her logistical dilemma, she said, she looked out a window of her Swansea home and saw a UPS truck roll by.

It hit her. What would work was a delivery service app. More research connected her to the myrouteonline app. She contacted the company to explain her project and the next day, myrouteonline had given her the app for free.

Once she pumped in all the addresses and some other preferences (including avoiding the President Avenue seven hills), the app laid out the eight routes for the eight days.

She emailed the targeted school families four or five days before each ride and posted reminder videos on Google Classroom.

The first ride was Swansea/Somerset. Things went well that day. Very well. Daniels and Mello knew their unorthodox adventure was to be something special.

“From Day 1, I knew it was the right thing to do,” Daniels said. “Our first stop, it was a senior girl who was an essential worker. She couldn’t be home. But she left snacks and treats. As we were leaving, the mom pulled up. We were so glad to be there.”

Westport (34 miles, longest ride for distance) was next, and then the big city, Fall River, where Daniels and Mello were frequently accompanied by and helped by Atlantic Charter school resource officer Scott Cabral, who, Daniels noted, helped with “unusual addresses, doorbells and side doors. The students and parents were excited to see him as well.” (She added, with a laugh, that on a few occasions the parents were at first nervous about seeing a police cruiser pull up to the house and she and Mello assured those moms and dads that the student was not in trouble.)

Atlantis Charter students can be found all over Fall River, far in the north end to near the Tiverton line, from the Taunton River estuary/Mount Hope Bay shore to the Watuppa ponds.

The total mileage was 140 miles, an average of almost 20 per day. The total time was 34 hours, 29 minutes and 19 seconds. The last ride in Fall River was the longest for time (5 hours, 19 minutes). There was one very minor mishap, when Mello (who takes the blame) rear-ended Daniels at about 1 mph and Daniels, in slow motion, tipped over and fell to the road.

The smiles and warm greetings? The cyclists lost count.

Senior Grace Kpor, who lives in Fall River’s north end, was home for the Daniels-Mello visit. “I thought it was really nice of them to ride all around Fall River to see us,” she said. “They also gave me a card and made the students feel really included.”

“Honestly, this reminded me of why I got into teaching,” said Mello, a Tiverton High graduate and the Atlantis Charter boys’ soccer coach. “Seeing the kids. Seeing the looks on their faces. It’s something I’ll remember for a long time.”

Email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. Follow him @GregSullivanHN.

Daniels’ very professional Bike to the Student video can be viewed on her Facebook page.