Did you know that two-thirds of Canadian children live within a 30 minute walk of their school but less than one-third walk on a regular basis?
John Fisher P.S. and the Green Committee care about the environment and promoting a healthy lifestyle for the school community. Therefore, JFPS will be participating in The IWALK Club, a part of Green Communities Canada’s Active and Safe Routes to School (ASRTS) Initiative. The IWALK Club is part of a province-wide initiative to walk across the world by walking to school.
For its part, John Fisher will be launching a Walking Wednesday program to encourage its students to walk to school on the first Wednesday of every month. The Walking Wednesday launch will take place on Wednesday December 1st. Students who walk to school will receive an “IWALK Club” card and stickers that will be handed out in the school yard. A Map of Canada has been posted on the wall outside the gym to track how many kilometres JFPS students have walked on each Walking Wednesday.
All students can participate in this program by walking to school, walking to their school bus stop or by asking their parents to park the car at least a block away and “walking-the-block” to school.
Please help your school Green Committee better understand JFPS families’ travel behaviour by completing the JFPS Family Travel Survey online (one per family) by Friday December 3rd.
Any parents who are interested in volunteering for the Walking Wednesday program are asked to contact Keri Baxter/RaeAnn Robertson at jfpswalktoschool@gmail.com.
Walking Wednesday will take place rain or shine so please remember to dress for the weather!
2011/2012 Dates
Wednesday, Oct. 5th (International Walk to School Day)
Wednesday, Nov. 2nd
Wednesday, Dec. 7th
Wednesday Jan. 11th
Wednesday Feb. 1st
Wednesday, Feb. 8 (Special Ontario Winter Walk Day)
Wednesday, March 7th
Wednesday, April 4th
Please note that we will be starting our Spring schedule in April.
Safe Kids Canada’s Top 5 Road Safety Rules:
- STOP – Think, Look and Listen for vehicles – check both ways before crossing the road.
- Cross only at intersections. Never cross in the middle of the street or between parked cars and never run onto the road.
- Recognize and follow the crossing signals, make sure the street is clear and all cars have stopped before crossing.
- Watch out for cars coming out of driveways and alleys.
- Use streets with sidewalks. If there is no sidewalk, walk facing traffic, away from the road if possible, and in single file.
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