FifteenShasta County schools will join schools from around the world to celebrate International Walk to School Day on Wednesday, October 8, 2014. Local elected officials and principals will lead “walking school buses,” groups of students walking to school that day.
“Walk to School Day in Shasta County continues to grow each year with more schools, parents, children, and law enforcement involved,” states Sara Sundquist, Safe Routes to School Coordinator. “At some local schools this is one of their biggest events. Some schools will be using this event to kick off regular walking school buses and celebrate infrastructure improvements recently completed near the schools.”
Walk to School Day is expected to include students from all 50 states and 40 countries. Schools that are participating in Shasta County include: Anderson Heights, Anderson Middle, Burney, Cypress, Columbia, Happy Valley Primary, Junction, Lassen View, Manzanita, Meadow Lane, Millville, Mountain View, Sequoia, Shasta Lake, and Turtle Bay. Over 1600 kids, parents, and community leaders with gather at specific locations to walk to school together. As always, drivers should be on alert for children walking near school zones.
Walk to School Day events work to create safer routes for walking and bicycling and emphasize the importance of physical activity among children, pedestrian safety, and decreased traffic congestion and air pollution. This also complements a pedestrian safety curriculum being implemented throughout all of Redding School District and several other Shasta County schools over the next year.
Walk to School Day is organized by the Shasta County Safe Routes to School program, which works with schools to improve pedestrian safety and to promote walking to school. To assist with this event or the Safe Routes to School movement, contact Sara Sundquist at (530) 245-6457.
For additional information, please visit these Web sites:
Healthy Shasta www.healthyshasta.org/saferoutes.htm
International Walk to School in the USA www.walkbiketoschool.org
National Center for Safe Routes to School www.saferoutesinfo.org
-from press release
