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CLEMMONS — More than a decade ago, the village of Clemmons started up a bike day event when it received a grant to promote bicycle safety. The event has gone through a variety of renditions since then, before village staff landed on what they freely admit is an unusual combination, with a bicycle ride, a touch a truck section and a pig petting zoo.

Of course, the village still had a bit of a surprise change for attendees, although this one came as a surprise to even the event planners.

“The petting zoo canceled on us the day before the event so I (and all of Clemmons) scrambled to find a couple of local pigs that we could have at the event. Leigh Ann McDowell saved the day. Through a mutual friend, we talked and it turns out she has a small family farm right here in Clemmons and had two KuneKune pigs she could bring on the fly. It all worked out in the end thanks to our awesome Clemmons village people coming together calling around on a desperate hunt for pigs on a Friday night,” wrote Clemmons Events Coordinator Lynette Fox in an email.

Even though the last-minute change made for a frantic Friday night, children clearly loved the two KuneKune pigs McDowell brought along and spent plenty of time doting on them.

Originally, the village had planned to have a piglet petting zoo, which Fox said came from brainstorming when she changed the name of the event. The village changed the name from the Pedal and Metal fest to the Wheels and Squeals because some people had gotten it confused with Winston-Salem’s Gears and Guitars and thought there was a heavy metal band playing.

“The name Wheels and Squeals came out of a brainstorming session of how can we change the name of this event, and as usual while discussing that, we got sidetracked thinking I wonder if we can hire someone to do pig races like they do at the fair,” wrote Fox.

The event still has both the bicycle angle and the Touch a Truck side, with Clemmons and Forsyth County departments parking their trucks and equipment in the Morgan Elementary School parking lot for children to look at and hop inside.

For bikes, local students from the Twin City Bike Collective handed out refurbished bicycles and Clemmons Bicycle offered free bike checks. Twin City is a nonprofit run by students from the Summit School that takes in unwanted or unused bikes, refurbishes them and gives them away to anyone in need of a new bike.

“The event has grown for sure and we do love this event but it can be a gamble with the weather and with the timing of Easter and other organizations Easter Egg hunts which are very popular. It was a much chillier day than we anticipated but people still came out and had a great time. Some even went home with free bikes and bike helmets,” wrote Fox.

Fox said that village staff have had fun with the unusualness of the event, and she joked about some of the ways she could think of to evolve it even further.

“Maybe next year it will evolve even more and we can drop easter eggs from the top of the firetruck, or have pigs running loose hunting for eggs, while riding a bicycle,” she joked.