Photo courtesy April RossettiBy April Rossetti
Special to The SUN
Remember walking or riding your bike to school?
“American kids don’t walk and bike to school much anymore. Even after some modest progress in recent years, only about 20 percent of 5- to 14-year-olds walked or biked to school in 2012, compared to 48 percent in 1969, according to the National Center for Safe Routes to School,”Streetsblog USA notes.
Retro Metro Kids (RMK), Archuleta School District’s Safe Routes to School Coalition, is trying to provide opportunities for the youth of Pagosa Springs to walk and bike to school safely.
RMK hosts Walk to School Wednesdays for Pagosa Springs Elementary School students each week, beginning at South Park (8th Street) at 7:25 a.m. We walk (or sometimes skip) our way to school, enjoying the fresh air and waking up our bodies. Walk to School Wednesdays takes place throughout the entire school year, no matter the weather. Participants earn miles toward The Hundred Mile Club and earn an invitation to the end-of-the-year celebration.
Join us Wednesday, Jan. 3, for some fun walking to school.
RMK aims to create safe, convenient and fun opportunities for children to bicycle and walk to and from schools. The goal is to get more kids walking and biking to school, increase kids’ safety and reverse the alarming nationwide trend toward childhood obesity and inactivity.
