On Christmas Eve 2020, fire trucks rushed to Chittle’s home in the sleepy little town of Manton, Michigan. But it wasn’t because of a Christmas nightmare. Far from it.

Winters can be long and tough in this far north, Scott Chittle knew something had to be done to bring some cheer to the 1,555 people in Manton.

Chittle, 51, lives in a big yellow house with his mother and two children. When he was three, his father built an ice skating rink (溜冰场) in their backyard, where Chittle and his friends would spend endless hours over the coming years playing hockey. That, Chittle thought, is what the children in this community need.

One problem was that Chittle had no clue how to build an ice rink. Luckily, after watching a tutorial (教程) in YouTube, he smoothed out a 3,000-square-foot section of his yard and ordered a huge tarp (防水布) large enough to cover it. Now he needed the ice. That’s where those fire trucks came in. It took 12 of them to spray enough water to fill the plot. Then he waited for Mother Nature to do the rest.

It wasn’t long before Chittle’s backyard became a Manton hot spot. The smell of baked hot dogs and burning firewood filled the air. And the laughter and screams of children playing hockey made their parents smile.

But the kindness didn’t stop with Chittle. When word got out that he’d spent $1,400 out of his own pocket to build his rink of dreams, neighbors, strangers and businesses donated $3,000 to cover the costs and more.

For Chittle, the ice rink was always about more than kids blowing off some steam. It was about surviving even the darkest times. “I want to show the rest of the world,” says Chittle, “what a little effort one person and the community can do, not only for others but for the souls of all.”

I got my first bike when I was nine years old. Jimmy, the bike, was my first love. I rode it everywhere. The suburb, the back lanes, the fields and forests, the river paths and swampland were far more exciting than any adventure novel or television series.

There’s nothing quite like the relationship between a child and his bicycle and the endless happiness two wheels and a pair of strong legs offer. No video or computer game can replace the liberation of being alone on a bicycle.

As parents, to deny children the simple pleasure of riding a bike is a failure of our responsibilities to raise independent and stable young citizens. We should offer our children a healthy alternative to hours in front of an addictive screen. Studies have shown that cycling promotes not only muscle growth but brain growth. Guess which country has children with the best mental health outcomes and is regularly the top of listings of the happiest young people. No surprise it’s the Netherlands, the unquestioned leader among industrial countries in encouraging bicycle use.

Our dependence on cars has degraded the public transport system, polluted our sky, led to the untimely death of thousands every year, and denied children safe access to their suburbs. A recent study found that 69% of children were accompanied to school. The same study found that a similar number of parents drove to work.

In some regions of Japan, when children start their first year of school, parents are expected to walk with them for the first few weeks, introducing them to residents and shopkeepers along the chosen route, letting the community take care of these children. However, driving children to school is proscribed. Children can choose to ride a bike or walk to school after they are familiar with the community, and it’s the community’s role to keep them safe.

Therefore, I strongly advise the government to provide better infrastructure (基础设施). Build separated cycle lanes, decrease speed limits, and design street scapes that favour people over cars. The results will be less pollution, quieter suburbs, a healthier population and, best of all, happy and independent children.

A study has found that a lifetime of regular exercise and activity can slow down the aging process (衰老过程). Researchers say that getting older should not necessarily mean becoming more weak or sick. Their research shows that a devotion to a life of movement and exercise may help us live not only longer, but also healthier.

For their study, the researchers looked at two groups. The first group was made up of 125 non-professional cyclists between the ages of 55 to 79. This group included 84 healthy men and 41 healthy women. We will call this group the “cyclists”.

Researchers then found 130 people to make up a second group. Within this group, 75 people were aged from 57 to 80. The other 55 were between the ages of 20 and 36. The people in this group were also healthy, but they did not exercise regularly. We will call this group the “non-exercisers”. Smokers, heavy drinkers of alcohol and people with other health issues were not included in the study.

Then, researchers gave both groups a series of tests. They tested their muscle mass (肌肉质量), muscular strength, percentage of body fat and the strength of their immune (免疫的) systems. Then the researchers compared the results of the two groups.

Results showed that the cyclists did not experience body changes usually regarded as a normal aging process. For example, they did not lose muscle mass or muscular strength. Also, their body fat did not increase with age.

The researchers also found something they had not expected. The study showed that the immune systems of the cyclists did not age either.

The researchers advise us all to find an exercise that we like in our lives.