The Highland Elementary School is participating in the Winter Walk to School Day this Tuesday, January 31, which will be celebrated nationwide on February 1.
Students will be encouraged to walk to school bundled in their winter gear, where they will be greeted at the front of their school by Safe Kids Grand Forks and community members. “The students are encouraged to get out and walk to school. They’re going to bundle up, wearing their gloves, mittens, and hats, and they’ll walk to school,” Safe Kids Grand Forks Community Resource Tina Sanders explained. “Then we’re going to have the opportunity to greet them in front of the school, where they’ll get some soft mittens, hot cocoa, snacks and be greeted by some of our community members and Safe Kids staff to celebrate the fact that they’re out there, getting some movement during the winter time, and making a difference in their community by helping to relieve the congestion of the traffic over there.” The road leading to Highland Elementary is usually very congested, and with the students walking to school rather than being driven by their parents, this can make it easier for other traffic to pass through quickly and easily and prevent any traffic jams.
While Safe Kids encourages students to be active during the winter weather with the walk, they also encourage the students to dress warmly and properly due to the upcoming forecast predicting temperatures potentially dropping below zero. They are also encouraging drivers to drive extra cautiously for the event and the rest of the winter with any pedestrians walking in the streets. “We want to encourage the kids to dress in layers. We want to make sure that you can regulate your body temperature. We’re asking those kids to make sure they’re wearing their warm socks and boots and keep their heads and hands covered to keep themselves warm. With the weather kind of dipping, and it gets really icy out there, so during the winter time, our drivers do have some added responsibilities with regards to driving and watching out for pedestrians,” Tina Sanders explained. “We have those huge piles of snow at the corners and edges of our streets, and sometimes pedestrians have a hard time seeing over the piles of snow, and the drivers have a hard time seeing them, so it’s important for us when we’re driving that we keep aware of that area. Also, note that the pedestrians will probably be moving a little slower. They might slip and fall because of that ice, so it’s really important that our drivers are paying attention when people are crossing are crosswalks.” Safe Kids will also provide the children with reflective gear when they arrive at the school for them to wear on their walk homes and in the future to make it easier for drivers to see at night and during the day.
To help remind the students about the walk to school on Tuesday, Safe Kids is enlisting the fourth-grade students to encourage their peers to participate in the event. “We are enlisting the fourth-grade students as our ambassadors for this event, so they will encourage their peers to participate,” Tina Sanders explained. “We’re going to have a day where the fourth-graders are going to be wearing a traffic cone costume. So they’ll be walking around, reminding their peers to walk to school by wearing that traffic cone. More information will also be available on the school’s social media, so we’re letting the families know and encouraging them to be a walking neighborhood that day.” The event is also being promoted by Safe Kids Grand Forks and is available to answer questions or give more information about the event by calling them at 701-780-1489, at safekids@altru.org on Safe Kids Grand Forks Facebook page.
