Walk/Bike Initiative Starting Up for Fall

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Have you been walking your kids to school or sending them off on bikes in the morning? Starting the day off actively is part of the national Walk and Roll initiative to encourage kids to be healthy.

Island Trail Network’s Tom Pogson is the Safe Routes to School Coordinator and says between October 6 and 19, he hopes kids will get outside a total of ten times. That means they can bike to school or take a hike – whatever gets your elementary and middle school students out and about.

Pogson says the habit of walking and biking to school which was so strong in the 60s and 70s has declined and many residents live too far away from their classrooms to get to them that way.

“There’s been a real change in the way kids take in information and a real way kids spend their time and what we know is that this lack of activity or some level of daily activity seems to be contributing to obesity and secondarily, the development of diabetes in these young children that don’t have an active lifestyle as they become adults.”

Pogson says if kids record when they bike or walk to school and build up to ten separate outdoor adventures, they have the chance to win prizes – from pencils to bike pins. Pogson says there may also be an apple party with a date and location to be announced after October 19. Check out the Walk Bike to School website for more information.