Lesson aLIVE is turning school assemblies into memorable conversations about perseverance, kindness, bullying and believing in yourself—using BMX to make sure students don’t just hear the message, but remember it.
Goal setting. Perseverance. Bullying. Health and fitness. Safety. Diversity. Kindness.
These are the conversations Lesson aLIVE, a Jacksonville nonprofit, is looking to have with young people, and they are also some of the hardest messages to make stick when students hear versions of them again and again throughout their school years. Telling a child to keep trying when something is difficult is one thing. Showing them what years of falling, practicing and getting back up can eventually become is something entirely different.
That’s where the BMX bike comes in.
Through its signature Flowstyle BMX School Assembly, Lesson aLIVE brings a 45-minute interactive program into elementary and middle schools that combines the excitement of professional BMX with conversations about the choices, setbacks and relationships students are navigating in their own lives. The tricks draw students into the room, but the nonprofit’s work is built around what happens once it has their attention.
At Forest Lake Education Center, that translated into something educators were still talking about after the performance was over:
“Stephen encouraged our students to stand up for others, make positive choices, and embrace kindness in their daily lives.”
That’s what Lesson aLIVE wants to leave behind when the bike leaves the gym.
Falling Is Part of the Story
At the center of the program is Stephen Cerra, a four-time X Games competitor, Coca-Cola Hall of Fame athlete and professional BMX rider with more than 20 years in the sport.
During a Lesson aLIVE assembly, students get to see what all those years of work can produce. They also learn about everything that came before the finished tricks: the practice, the mistakes, the falls and the decision to keep trying.
Lesson aLIVE uses something students can see happening in front of them to make perseverance less abstract. The trick may last only a few seconds, but getting there took years, giving the nonprofit a natural way to talk about what happens when something doesn’t come easily the first, fifth or fiftieth time.
At Osteen Elementary, educators saw students make that connection:
“Our students learned that success doesn’t happen overnight—it takes hard work, perseverance, and believing in yourself.”
It’s why one of Lesson aLIVE’s central messages is so simple: “Success is earned, not given.”
For a child struggling with school, a sport, a friendship or something they haven’t figured out yet, the lesson isn’t that everyone should become good at BMX. It’s that struggling with something today doesn’t necessarily tell you where you’ll end up.
Kindness Comes From a Different Part of His Story
The conversation about bullying isn’t there because it’s expected in a school assembly. It comes from Stephen’s own experience.
He moved to Los Angeles as a young athlete to pursue professional BMX, but according to Lesson aLIVE, he was bullied and eventually experienced a violent encounter that nearly convinced him to abandon his dream and return home.
He chose to keep going and eventually built the career students now see in front of them.
Lesson aLIVE uses that experience to talk about what strength looks like away from the bike, too: standing up for someone else, respecting differences and understanding the effect our choices can have on another person.
That’s where another of the nonprofit’s messages comes from: “Kindness takes strength.”
As one school shared after Stephen’s visit:
“Stephen’s message about perseverance, kindness, and making good choices really resonated with our students.”
The two ideas—working through your own setbacks and thinking about how you treat someone going through theirs—give Lesson aLIVE a way to talk about much more than action sports.
Since 2017, the nonprofit has brought its programs to tens of thousands of students across the country. The BMX makes the experience memorable, but the feedback coming back from schools keeps returning to perseverance, kindness, positive choices and believing in yourself.
One Introduction Can Put a Whole School in the Room
For Lesson aLIVE, reaching the next group of students isn’t only about finding another school that wants the program. It’s also about whether that school has the resources to bring it in.
School enrichment budgets are limited, and some schools that could benefit from an experience like this simply don’t have room for it.
Sponsor-a-School. Lesson aLIVE created its Sponsor-a-School program to allow a business or community partner to fund an assembly so the cost doesn’t fall on the school. The nonprofit also works with PTAs and PTOs and pursues grants to help make its programs accessible.
In Northeast Florida, that makes the need surprisingly personal. Lesson aLIVE needs sponsors, but it also needs connections—to principals, counselors, PTA/PTO leaders and others who know which schools and students should have the opportunity to be in that room.
Maybe that’s a school your child attends. Maybe it’s a principal you know, a PTA you work with or a business looking for a meaningful way to show up for local kids.
Because one introduction can open a school door.
One sponsorship can put hundreds of students in the gym.
And for one child sitting in that room, the message may arrive at exactly the right time.
At Osteen Elementary, educators said students left the program:
“…motivated to keep working hard and never give up.”
Maybe that’s a child struggling with something they haven’t told anyone about.
Maybe it’s one who’s ready to quit because they’re convinced they’re simply not good enough.
Or one who needs to hear that kindness is strength before deciding how to treat the kid sitting beside them.
They’ll see the BMX tricks. They’ll hear the cheers. They’ll watch Stephen land something that looks almost effortless.
What they won’t see are all the times he fell before he could.
And that’s the lesson Lesson aLIVE is trying to put in front of more children:
Goal setting. Perseverance. Bullying. Health and fitness. Safety. Diversity. Kindness.
The bike gets them into the story. What happens after they leave the gym is why Lesson aLIVE wants to be there.
Find Lesson aLIVE
Program: Flowstyle BMX School Assembly
Contact: Valerie Cerra, Board Member
Email:
vcerra@lessonalive.com
Phone:
570-430-0083
Website:
www.lessonalive.com
School Assemblies:
SchoolAssembly.com
LinkedIn: Lesson aLIVE | Facebook: Lesson aLIVE
Sponsor a school with Lesson aLIVE →Community Spotlight
Community Spotlight is a JAX Business Calendar storytelling series created to help more people discover the nonprofits and organizations doing meaningful work across our community—and understand where they can help.
If Lesson aLIVE made you think of a school, make the introduction. If your business can help put a school in the room, consider sponsoring one.
