"It is just not safe to let my child walk or ride their bike to school." So said respondents from the initial survey that the PTA of Linwood Elementary in Milwaukie, Oregon, sent out last spring. They didn’t know that 'Safe Routes to School' – with capital letters – existed. But they knew something was not right, and they wanted to fix it.
Looking back, I never would have imagined that many of the recreational activities I participated in and enjoyed, especially walking and bicycling to school, climbing ropes in PE, hiking to the local nature center, and playing games at recess, would impact my life so significantly.
This spring, families and schools across the country joined in the Fire Up Your Feet activity challenge, a program designed to encourage students, families, and school staff to walk, bike, and get physical activity in daily life. Together, families and schools logged a collective 292,400 minutes of activity and more than 7,000 miles.
Last week I was in a communications training with other nonprofit groups - a really good one, by the way, from Spitfire Communications, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. We were tasked throughout the week with writing stories, creating elevator speeches and developing communications plans. I learned a lot. I especially learned just how boring very smart, passionate people can sound.
We love it when Safe Routes to School volunteers and champions share what is happening in their community with us!
In the US, men's cycling trips surpass women's by at least 2:1. So how do we change that? We start by simply inviting women to participate. On May 13, there were 163 women-focused rides in 14 countries, including the US.
We started growing seeds for our garden over the weekend and as I sat down to write my blog this week I was struck by how working to grow awareness and engagement for Safe Routes to School is similar to the growth of our seedlings.