Making the walk to school a social routine

 “Walking to school with other kids in our neighborhood every Wednesday is a blast!” said 7-year-old Cayman Stein, a student at Coleman Elementary School in San Rafael. “I walk with my friends and we often laugh along the way. It’s even fun to walk in the rain.”

Last month Coleman Elementary School in San Rafael started encouraging more families to walk together to school as a way to decrease traffic congestion, reduce global warming and teach children the lifelong lesson of using their feet to get places. Coleman Elementary started three Walking School Buses organized by Lynn Stein, the Safe Routes to Schools parent volunteer leader.  A Walking School Bus is a group of children walking to school with one or more adults, and can be as informal as two families taking turns to meet at a designated location to walk to school. Adult presence along the route reduces the worry that some parents have about letting their child walk to school. 

“Walking is becoming contagious at Coleman Elementary,” said Stein. Every week Stein sends an e-mail as a Google announcement to remind and welcome others to join the school’s walking groups every Wednesday. The three designated meeting locations are highlighted in the e-mail along with the prompt 8:20 a.m. start time. Two volunteer parents walk from each Walking School Bus location to escort the children en route to school. All parents are welcome to join; a Walking School Bus is a social opportunity for parents and children to bond. Families that live far away are nudged to join the fun by driving partway, parking and then walking the rest of the way.

 “As the weather warms up I’m hoping that kids will ask their parents to walk more than once a week,” said Stein. “The long-term goal is to make walking to school a habit. The fresh air and exercise before school also prepares the children to be more alert upon arriving in the classroom.”

For more information on how to start a Walking School Bus in your neighborhood, please contact Laura Kelly at Safe Routes to Schools by calling (415) 456-3469 ext 2#.