Saturday, October 24, 2009

Kids Urged To Walk, Bike to School

By Elaine D. BriseÑO
Journal Staff Writer
          The Rio Rancho school district is participating in an international event that encourages students to walk or bike to school.
        The district will hold events at three elementary schools on Tuesday to commemorate the day. The Walk to School event is held in districts across the United States and in more than 40 countries.
        The day's events will take place at Cielo Azul, Puesta del Sol and Sandia Vista elementaries.
        • Walkers and bikers at Cielo Azul can meet at Zia or Havasu Falls park at 7:25 a.m. The trek to school will start at 7:40 a.m. Once at school, participants can join bus riders and students being dropped off for five laps around the school's track. Participants will receive breakfast. • Sandia Vista's celebration starts at 8:15 a.m. at the intersection of Nativitas and Lincoln. All students will have a chance to walk around the school at 8:50 a.m. followed by a bike decorating contest and bike rodeo with local police officers at 9 a.m.
        • Puesta del Sol participants will meet at Rainbow Pool by 8:15 a.m. Once at the school, students will receive participation certificates and a free coupon for breakfast. The coupons will be entered into a drawing for a free bike. Puesta's events will continue later that day with a schoolwide assembly at 1:30 p.m. The Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety will be at the school with bike safety demonstrations and the school's Walk Around the World Challenge.
        School districts are encouraged to develop safe routes to school as part of the event.
        Last year, Rio Rancho received a $15,000 Safe Routes to School grant to study ways to make it easier for students to bike and walk to school. The New Mexico Department of Transportation awarded the grant to the district's transportation department.
        The district will use the grant to focus on Puesta del Sol, Cielo Azul and Sandia Vista elementaries. Jeff Bronstein, the district's executive director of transportation, has said he picked those schools because they have the greatest challenges in regard to students walking or biking to school.
        The grant included $1,000 to plan a Walk to School event.
       

You also can send comments via our comment form