Register Your School for Winter Walk Day 2019

Posted in: Active Living, Blogs

Winter Walk Day is on February 6, 2019, get your school registered today!  Winter Walk Day is organized by SHAPE Alberta who vision is to see Albertan students choose Active Transportation for the school journey.  This one day event encourages people across Alberta to be active outdoors in winter. More than 800 organizations and 100,000 Albertans took part last year!

Register your school today to begin raising awareness about the importance of active transportation by clicking here! Download the checklist and get started preparations for Winter Walk Day today!

Today’s children are 40% less active than they were 30 years ago.  Imagine if they utilized their travel to school time every day as an opportunity to get more active!  An average Kindergartener takes 77.6 strides per min, and they can walk 1 km in 15-20 minutes. This means that if they walked 1 km to and from school they could be taking approximately 3000 more steps per day.  In an average school year, this calculates to 276,000 steps your kindergartener is missing out on by not walking to school.

The solution?  A Walking School Bus!  A Walking School Bus is an organized program that sees students walking to and from school in a group along a designated route under the supervision of an adult volunteer.

Other useful resources on active transportation and Walking School Buses:

SHAPE Alberta: Information and resources on Winter Walk Day, International Walk to School Week, Wheel Week and other resources for active transportation.

Saskatchewan in…motion: Toolkits, videos and resources on creating safe and active routes to school.

Walking School Bus: Step by step guide to starting a walking school bus.

Desirea Agar is a Health Promotion Coordinator for Alberta Health Services. December 2017.

Tags: active living, classroom, comprehensive school health, Physical Activity, school, transportation