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More Than 3,000 Schools Participate in International Walk to School Day
Students at schools nationwide and internationally participated in the annual International Walk to School Day on October 7, the Bangor Daily News reports. Launched in the United States in 1997 by the Partnership for a Walkable America, the event brings together children, parents, teachers and community leaders in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and 40 countries around the world to promote safe routes to school and more walkable communities. More than 3,300 U.S. schools participated in this year’s Walk to School Day events, an increase from 2,800 schools in 2008. Students from Charles C. Knowlton and Ellsworth Elementary-Middle Schools in Ellsworth, Maine, traveled in school buses to designated spots where they were dropped off so they could walk the remaining distance to school. Teachers, parents, community leaders and student volunteers from the local high school walked with the children while the Ellsworth Police Department provided crossing guards. The event was operated under Maine's Safe Routes to School program, a coalition between the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and the Maine Department of Transportation. In a similar event held in North Carolina, Safe Kids Wake County partnered with FedEx volunteers to educate children at Wakefield Elementary School about pedestrian safety. Safe Kids Worldwide and FedEx created the Safe Kids Walk This Way program in 1999 with the aim of promoting safety among motorists and child pedestrians (Hewitt, Bangor Daily News, 10/6/09; Carolina Newswire, 10/7/09; International Walk to School Day Web site). (Editor's note: RWJF provides support to the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, a network of more than 400 organizations and professional groups working to set goals, share best practices, secure funding and inform agencies that implement SRTS.)