Walk to School Day Wednesday Oct. 5

Students and parents from across Pennsylvania will join schools and community leaders from around the nation and the world to celebrate Walk to School Day on Wednesday, Oct. 5.

Held each year on the first Wednesday of October, Walk to School Day is an internationally recognized day to celebrate the benefits of walking by encouraging schoolchildren to walk and bicycle to school. Now in its 15th year in the United States, the event is recognized as a way to bring school officials, local leaders, parents, and children together to build awareness of why communities should be more walkable. In Pennsylvania, the event is promoted by the Department of Transportation as Walk or Roll to School Day.

This year, hundreds of elementary and middle school students across Pennsylvania are expected to participate in Walk or Roll to School Day. Although events will vary from school to school, they all center on the effort to draw attention to the need for safer routes for walking and bicycling by emphasizing how these activities increase physical activity among children, reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, and build connections among families, schools, and the broader community. Some schools plan to hold a community-wide celebration attended by local dignitaries and school officials and complete with speeches and music; others will simply encourage children and parents to meet and walk to school together.

“The hope is that Walk or Roll to School Day will generate enough enthusiasm for walking and bicycling that schoolchildren will continue to walk and bike to school long after the Oct. 5 celebration has ended,” said Carol Kilko, director of the Pennsylvania Safe Routes to School Resource Center.

Walk or Roll to School Day is promoted statewide by the Pennsylvania Safe Routes to School Resource Center on behalf of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and is part of the Safe Routes to School program, a statewide and national effort to promote and encourage safer routes to school.

For more information, contact the center at www.saferoutespa.org, info@saferoutesppa.org, or (717) 763-0930 (ask for Safe Routes).