Adam Vanderburg, the owner of Lee’s Bike Shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma has created the Tulsa Little 100 from the inspiration of the Little 500, as well as the desire to cultivate beginning cyclists. The Tulsa Little 100 is a bicycle relay race for teams of middle school boys and girls from public schools in Tulsa. The event includes both an 80-lap (20 mile) boy’s race and 50-lap (12.5 mile) girl’s race on a quarter mile track. Adam initially got his idea off of the ground by setting up a meeting with the working board at the Tulsa County Health Department, whom was attempting to develop a healthy lifestyle program for the Tulsa Public Schools. After a brief sales pitch using information taken from the IU Student Foundation website, the movie “Breaking Away”, and talking directly with the IUSF staff, he was granted permission to create a pilot program with four ‘at risk’ and two well-performing schools in the Tulsa Public School system. Teaming up with the Physical Education Director of Tulsa Public Schools, Adam met with the principal and physical education teacher of the six pilot schools to solidify their participation. More Institutions using the Little 500 Model: Miami University of Ohio, Oxford, Ohio 20/20-10/10 Bike Race Depauw University, Greencastle, Indiana Little 5 Institutions in progress: Baylor University, Waco, Texas University of Tennessee, Memphis

Next, in an effort to involve other community cyclists, as well as to facilitate the school’s participation in the inaugural event, Adam solicited volunteer bike coaches from the local bicycling community and paired them with each school to help the teacher or school parent volunteer get the team started. With the encouragement of Adam, the cycling community also organized free Tulsa Little 100 evening clinics over the next summer following the local club criterium race series. In addition to their time, the entire community also supported the project monetarily. As Adam states, ‘There is nothing that sells better than combining healthy fun sport activities and kids.” Due to the impressive sponsorship donations, participating students received a free helmet and each team received their one-speed racing bike at no expense. In addition, Adam was able to create a significant prize list for the winning team’s school, not to mention, a $50 award to all qualifying and participating teams; yet another incentive to keep the school’s involved with the program. The 2002 Tulsa Little 100 was a success by all accounts, and Adam has been granted permission to involve all of the public schools, as well as some private schools. Many schools are now using the event as a significant annual fundraiser, and they have already confirmed 23 teams for the 2003 Tulsa Little 100 coming this September!