September 16th, 2017
21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
City School emphasizes wellness, energy efficiency
Walking Wednesday continues this year, Way to Go campaign to begin Sept. 25
By MITCH CRAIB
Special to the Messenger
ST. ALBANS — School is back in session and so is our Walking Wednesday walk/bike to school promotion program. For five years we have been teaching our students and their families that walking and biking to school can be socially fun, an easy form of exercise, and a viable alternative to riding on our buses or driving to school with family members.
Kindergarteners through middle schoolers, their parents, grandparents, teachers, administrators and community volunteers have all joined in. All of us realize that getting to school under our own power is doable and worthwhile. We hope to have the program carry on and expand in the years ahead.
We started the Walking Wednesday program mainly because many of our students were not getting the recommended 60 minutes of moderate exercise per day. Walking or biking can get them well on their way to doing so. We also believe this kind of program can make a dent in the school’s carbon footprint by reducing the need for transport in fossil-fuel-based vehicles. With sidewalks everywhere in the city, we believe in encouraging our youth to access this amazing resource and exercise their bodies.
This year we are adding a nice two-week twist to our Walking Wednesday program by joining in with Vermont’s Way to Go campaign to be held September 25 to October 6.
Way to Go is an organization that strives to make the transport of people more energy efficient by encouraging people to carpool and walk or bike to school or work.
Interestingly, they see school busing as a way for communities to be energy efficient because students pooling together can lead to use of fewer vehicles and less fuel to get to school. With our buses tending to ride half empty we concur. More walking/biking, and more people busing, can lead to cleaner air.
During the Way-to-Go window we are going to ask our students and staff to either walk or bike to school, or take a school bus or carpool to school. If we manage to get at least 50 percent of our students and staff joining in those transport methods on at least one day during that time we will qualify to win either a $30,000 solar tracker or a two-tiered bicycle storage rack — both of which would be great for our school. With successful qualification as the goal, we have selected October 4 (one of our traditional Walking Wednesdays) as the day to get to school in fewer family and teacher’s vehicles. We will be doing classroom tallies to see how successful we are and then we will submit our results to Way to Go before October 11.
In summary, we want to celebrate our well-established walk and bike to school program and we want to make better use of our school buses. If the adults in our community can support these efforts, our kids can get the exercise they need and we can minimize excess vehicle use. --Mitch Craib is the wellness coordinator at St. Albans City School.
City School emphasizes wellness, energy efficiency
Walking Wednesday continues this year, Way to Go campaign to begin Sept. 25
By MITCH CRAIB
Special to the Messenger
ST. ALBANS — School is back in session and so is our Walking Wednesday walk/bike to school promotion program. For five years we have been teaching our students and their families that walking and biking to school can be socially fun, an easy form of exercise, and a viable alternative to riding on our buses or driving to school with family members.
Kindergarteners through middle schoolers, their parents, grandparents, teachers, administrators and community volunteers have all joined in. All of us realize that getting to school under our own power is doable and worthwhile. We hope to have the program carry on and expand in the years ahead.
We started the Walking Wednesday program mainly because many of our students were not getting the recommended 60 minutes of moderate exercise per day. Walking or biking can get them well on their way to doing so. We also believe this kind of program can make a dent in the school’s carbon footprint by reducing the need for transport in fossil-fuel-based vehicles. With sidewalks everywhere in the city, we believe in encouraging our youth to access this amazing resource and exercise their bodies.
This year we are adding a nice two-week twist to our Walking Wednesday program by joining in with Vermont’s Way to Go campaign to be held September 25 to October 6.
Way to Go is an organization that strives to make the transport of people more energy efficient by encouraging people to carpool and walk or bike to school or work.
Interestingly, they see school busing as a way for communities to be energy efficient because students pooling together can lead to use of fewer vehicles and less fuel to get to school. With our buses tending to ride half empty we concur. More walking/biking, and more people busing, can lead to cleaner air.
During the Way-to-Go window we are going to ask our students and staff to either walk or bike to school, or take a school bus or carpool to school. If we manage to get at least 50 percent of our students and staff joining in those transport methods on at least one day during that time we will qualify to win either a $30,000 solar tracker or a two-tiered bicycle storage rack — both of which would be great for our school. With successful qualification as the goal, we have selected October 4 (one of our traditional Walking Wednesdays) as the day to get to school in fewer family and teacher’s vehicles. We will be doing classroom tallies to see how successful we are and then we will submit our results to Way to Go before October 11.
In summary, we want to celebrate our well-established walk and bike to school program and we want to make better use of our school buses. If the adults in our community can support these efforts, our kids can get the exercise they need and we can minimize excess vehicle use. --Mitch Craib is the wellness coordinator at St. Albans City School.