Marion City Schools will join school districts throughout the world in celebrating International Walk to School Day on Wednesday, October 7, 2015.
Students and their families are encouraged to consider walking or biking to school. Student athletes from Harding High School will volunteer to stand at elementary and middle school crosswalks to help students cross the street and hand out water bottles and bike helmets. They will also hand out books donated by Let’s Read 20, a reading foundation with the sole purpose of encouraging people to read to a child at least 20 minutes a day.
The day, celebrated in more than 40 countries, encourages students to walk or bike to school. Along with promoting fitness, its purpose is to promote safety and motivate communities to study whether routes to school are safe and consider solutions if not.
The National Center for Safe Routes to School offers the following tips for parents walking with their children:
- Obey all traffic signs and signals.
- Choose routes that provide space to walk and have the least amount of traffic and lowest speeds.
- Look for traffic at all driveways and intersections.
- If possible, cross at a crosswalk or at an intersection with a walk signal.
- Stop at the curb and look for traffic in all directions (left, right, left, to the front and behind). At an intersection, it is important to look in front and in back to check for turning vehicles. The second look to the left is to re-check for traffic that is closest to you.
- Wait until no traffic is coming and start crossing; keep looking for traffic as you cross the road.
- Walk across the road. Do not run.
- Wear reflective gear if it is dark or conditions limit visibility, such as rain or snow.
- Talk with your child about what you’re doing and why as you walk.
Motorists are asked to watch out for walkers and bike riders and to talk to their children about traffic signs and signals and other traffic rules.
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