{adsense}
How do you make walking to school more appealing than taking the bus? You create a walking school bus!!!
How do you create a walking school bus? You start with one super motivated parent, you get his enthusiastic wife on board, you round up a bunch of interested parent helpers and oh, it helps if you get a federal grant to pay for safety vests, stop-signs and t-shirts.
This is exactly what my neighbors Scott and Jenny Bordon did recently. Their ‘walking school bus’ was kicked off on Earth Day to encourage more kids to walk to the neighborhood elementary school. They set up 4 separate routes to the school, each with a parent leader who is armed with a safety vest and stop sign. Each route picks up kids along the way and they have quite a crowd by the time they get to school! So far it has been a huge success and has gotten a lot of local press. They have over 100 kids walking to school 2 days a week through the end of the school year!! Pretty cool, huh?
Interested in starting a walking school bus in your area? Jenny told me that it was pretty easy to pull together and they were happily surprised at how many parents and kids ‘climbed on board’ to help make it happen. They received a grant from the Safe Routes to School program – a federal program that encourages kids to safely walk and bicycle to
school. You certainly don’t need a grant to get people to walk to school but a little cash might help get things off the ground.
What are your thoughts on walking to school? Did you walk to school as a child? Do your kids walk? Is walking encouraged or discouraged by your school?
{image from Startribune.com}
This blog post originated from Mindful Momma.