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Walking to school -- safely |
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Thursday, 23 October 2008 |
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Children line up at Dunn Park to walk to school on the Safe Routes to School kick-off. WOONSOCKET — The Safe Routes to School program kicked off Thursday with more than 250 students walking to school alongside parents, school officials and community leaders.
The Safe Routes to School program is designed to encourage children to walk or bicycle to school, as well as help children adopt more healthy and active lifestyles. The program is also geared to make walking and bicycling safer, as well as reduce traffic, fuel consumption and air pollution in the vicinity of schools.
“I am thrilled to see this nationally recognized program come to our community,” said Terese Curtin, executive director for Connecting for Children and Families (CCF). “Improving the safety of the walkways to Woonsocket schools is a critically important goal of this project. Also, with childhood obesity rising at an alarming rate, this program will promote and encourage physical activity and a healthy lifestyle among our children and youth.”
The Safe Routes to School began Thursday from Dunn Park on Mason Street with varsity athletes from Woonsocket High School organizing students into specific grades. Once assembled, more than 250 students walked to Kevin K. Coleman and Fifth Avenue Elementary Schools along a designated safe route.
Participants of the walk included Woonsocket Police Chief Thomas Carey; Fire Chief Kenneth Finlay; Superintendent of Schools Robert Gerardi; Pat Dubois, director of grants and assessment; George Nasuti, director
of Health and Wellness for the Woonsocket School Department; and John Ward of the City Council.
Participants also included Principal Tom Hazard of Kevin K. Coleman School; Principal Robert Desrosiers of Fifth Avenue School; Ronnie Sirota, national Safe Routes to School planner; school faculty; and other community leaders.
Another “walk to school” event is planned for next Wednesday from Dunn Park. Also, as of Thursday, principals of both Kevin K. Coleman and Fifth Avenue Elementary Schools, will walk students to school from designated street corners.
In July, the city of Woonsocket received two federal grants totaling $316,310 to support this initiative at both schools in Fairmount and at the Woonsocket Middle School.
Some of the grant funds will be used for traffic improvements, such as creating and repairing sidewalks, adding new traffic signage around schools and other infrastructure projects.
The grants will also be used to fund programs designed to encourage students to be more active, such as a walking club at the middle school. Organizers are also working on creating “walking school buses,” in which volunteers will help students walk to school.
In 1969, about half of students throughout the country walked or bicycled to school, according to the Web site for the federal Safe Routes to School program. Today, less than 15 percent of all school trips are made by walking or bicycling, according to the Web site.
In Woonsocket last year, a large percent of schoolchildren did not live far enough away from their school to qualify for busing, including 450 of the 500 children at the Kevin K. Coleman and Fifth Avenue Elementary Schools. Another 524 of the Woonsocket Middle School’s 1,463 students also did not meet the requirements for busing.
The Rhode Island Statewide Planning Program and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation support this project. Funding is provided through the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.
For more information about the federal Safe Routes to School program, visit safety.fhwa.dot.gov/saferoutes/. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 24 October 2008 )
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