The Colorado Department of Transportation is encouraging schools to participate in Walk and Roll Day on Wednesday, Oct. 12, to promote and practice pedestrian and road safety among classmates, families, and caregivers.
Organizers are encouraged to register their school at walkbiketoschool.org as a way of tracking participation and showing support for active, healthy, safe transportation. Registrations also assist Colorado’s ranking among other participating states, regardless of whether schools choose to participate on the official day or choose a date most convenient to their community for optimal participation.
Established in 1997, Colorado Walk to School Day is part of the International Walk to School Day program, when children from more than 40 countries walk to school on the same day. Recently, the National Center for Safe Routes to School renamed the event Walk and Roll Day in recognition of all active and sustainable modes of transportation. Throughout the state, more than 150 schools participate every year.
Traditionally, Walk and Roll Day is held on the first Wednesday of October. The official date was moved by one week this year to make the event more convenient for all, since Yom Kippur falls on Wednesday, the 5th. Across Colorado, schools are celebrating throughout the month in meaningful ways.
"Almost all of our 500 students commute to and from school actively on a regular basis," says Melanie Wade, counselor at Rocky Mountain Elementary School in Clifton. “On Walk and Roll Days, we get to really celebrate that. Our Physical Education Teacher, Mark Garcia, always does such a great job organizing. This year, we’re putting together a bike and scooter safety unit that we’ll implement before the event, utilizing LaScooter scooters, which we received as the lucky winners of the Colorado Safe Routes to School giveaway.”
For this event CDOT provided free Walk and Roll stickers on to interested schools. Additional resources and ideas, including downloadable posters in English and Spanish, are available on the CDOT’s Safe Routes to School website at https://www.codot.gov/programs/bikeped/safe-routes.
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