A few weeks ago, over 100 Portland elementary students had a “wheely” special guest star escort them home from school: Benson Boone.
Boone — who shot to fame with hits such as ‘Beautiful Things’ and ‘Mystical Magical’ — is known for his electric performance antics, especially his spectacular backflips. Turns out, he’s pretty fun on a bike, too.
“Seeing his interactions brought me to tears,” says Sam Balto, a physical education teacher and co-founder of Bike Bus World. “He was asking kids’ names, he was taking selfies with them. They were asking him questions, and he was answering them all while riding a bike.”
Balto adds, “He just had an awesome attitude and was super present, singing along with the kids and really just taking in the experience.”
A bike bus is a group of children who ride to school together with the help of a few parent “drivers” to guide them. Balto co-founded Bike Bus World “to support more people starting bike buses, to sustain them, to help grow the community and help them advocate for better infrastructure and better funding.” There are bike buses in 30 states, and over 400 around the world.
But a bike bus is about more than a mode of transportation. It’s a way of life.
“Music’s a big part of it. It just creates a really fun and joyful environment,” says Balto. “Bubbles are very popular too.”
Both were present on the kids’ ride with Boone.
“Two weeks before the ride, we made a video asking Benson Boone to ride with us,” Balto explains. Boone was scheduled to perform just over 3 miles from the kids’ school that day at the Moda Center in Portland. Balto was hoping he had time before the concert to spend with the kids.
“It got 1000s of likes and 1000s of people tagged him on Instagram and TikTok, and a week and a half later, his manager reached out to me, asking for some details about the ride,” Balto says.
Everyone was hoping that Boone would join the ride to school on the morning of Friday, October 4, but Balto had to explain to the kids that the timing just didn’t work out.
But then Balto heard from Boone’s manager again.
“Four hours before school got out, I got a call from his team saying that he wanted to do it,” he says. “So I got everything together, and we got to surprise the kids after school. He rode the bike bus home with them.”
Balto met Boone a few blocks away from the school to give him time to get comfortable on the bike before being mobbed by overly excited school kids.
“As we turned the corner to the school, I started playing his music,” Balto says. “The kids started screaming. He threw his hand up in the air to wave. And then everybody, all the kids, filled the street, and we started riding.”
After biking the whole route with the kids, Boone posed for a group photo and then “stuck around to sign tons of autographs before leaving for his sound check,” says Balto.
Boone isn’t the only celebrity to join Balto’s bike bus. Justin Timberlake rode with Balto and crew in January 2025. Balto appreciates the attention that celebrities bring to his nonprofit by joining in.
“Parenting is a really hard job, and we don’t get a ton of support from society,” Balto says. “Bike bus is this great tool to resew the social fabric that is torn more than we would like to admit.”
He adds, “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen these soul crushing school car lines, but we should be doing everything we can to move away from them and to move towards movement and community.”
Parents who have heeded the warning of Jonathan Haidt in “The Anxious Generation” have been looking for ways to increase their children’s independence in a safe way, and bike buses do just that.
“I always say there’s this narrative of kids just want to stay at home playing video games on the couch,” he says. “And I really feel like that could be nothing farther from the truth. Kids want to be outside and want to be with their friends, but the environment we’ve created for them is not conducive for that.”
He continues, “We see more and more kids riding on non-bike bus days, recreating the freedom that we had in the 80s but somehow lost.”
Balto calls the bike bus “disarming” to drivers, who often just stop to smile and watch as the kids bike across intersections. Normally, Balto’s bike bus only operates on Wednesday mornings on the way to school. But for Boone, he made an exception and added a special Friday ride.
“He is the kindest, most genuine, present person I’ve ever got to see,” Balto says of Boone. “It was a really great way to end the week.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
