Another Walktober has flown by! Here’s a small recap of this years event
This year, October brought very warm weather and lots of sun. This provided a great opportunity for teachers and parents to get their students and kids out and walking to school. This year we saw plenty of kids get out for Walktober, including:
- 1,298 kids registered
- 7 schools participating
- 2 families registered
Events
This year we held a Walkabout at Lord Selkirk school with an eager class of sixth graders. The purpose of the walkabout is to take the kids around their neighborhood and find the positives and negatives for active school travel. It was a warm and sunny day, perfect for a walk. The kids excitedly pointed out all sorts of thing’s and marked them down on their activity sheets. Overall, they gave their neighborhood a good grade for walking and biking but did make some observations about what could be better.
We also had the pleasure of visiting Southeast Collegiate closer to the end of the month to do a presentation on moving around the city. Students at Southeast Collegiate come from First Nation’s communities outside of Winnipeg and we wanted to help get them more familiar with moving around the city in a safe, active and sustainable manner. We talked about bus routes, cycling infrastructure and lots of resources they could use. It was one of the first presentations we have done for high school students which was very exciting for us. We hope to bring more presentations to teens in the future!
- To help get their kids started in walking and rolling to school, it first began with being a good example as a parent. That was taking part in active transportation themselves to work or for errands and bringing kids along for some of those journeys. This helped normalize walking and rolling to school, as well as exposing their kids to benefits like smiling and waving to neighbours, getting fresh air, and moving their bodies.
- Despite what some may believe, walking and rolling to school has had a positive impact on Stephane and Ian’s time management in the morning and after school. They found their journey’s took less time as they were not sitting in traffic for as long as they would in a car.
- From Ian’s experience as a teacher in the Elmwood neighbourhood, where more kids tend to walk and roll to school as car ownership is less common in the area, he says he gets to talk more with parents during school drop off and pick up. He says this has become more impactful than an email or phone call home, or, just another way to connect and update parents on students’ progress as the year goes on.
Thank you once again to our participants and we hope you’ll join us next year for Walktober 2024!
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