By walking or wheeling to school with parents, school staff and community leaders, Manitoba children took an important step toward healthier living and a healthy environment. Thousands of Manitoban and Canadian students showed their support for active transportation. In Manitoba, 117 schools representing close to 32 000 students registered for the event!
Congratulations to this year’s IWALK prize winners! Ryerson Elementary School won the early-bird prize of a StepsCount! pedometer kit with a value of over $800; Kelsey School in The Pas won the prize of $250 towards their walk to school initiative and Samuel Burland School in Winnipeg won a collection of books from Green Teacher Magazine!
The challenge now is to encourage walking and cycling to school on a regular basis year-round! Here are some ways we can encourage students to walk or cycle as often as they can throughout the year:
• Request a FREE presentation about ASRTS for parents or students about the importance of walking or cycling to school.
• Request a FREE Walking Wednesdays Club calendar for each class at your school. Extend these to fun walking theme days like “Toboggan Tuesdays” or “Walking Wednesdays”. Encourage students to brainstorm their own creative ideas for walking songs, decorated sneakers or club mottos;
• Go Idle Free! Book a FREE Idle-Free Zone in-class presentation for your school and receive signs and materials to help develop an idle free strategy that suits each school and educates the whole community.
• Participate in the Clean Air Day Walk to School Poster Design Competition (see reverse of CAD Registration Form)! Get students thinking, writing and drawing about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and making small changes which benefit the environment.
• The new Active and Safe Routes to School Program Handbook will be released this spring and will be everything you need to know to help you get started at your school! Contact us to put your name on the waiting list for one of the first copies!
• If you are looking for incentives to congratulate your students, you can check out the Canadian Active and Safe Routes to School Program’s Virtual Store online. Proceeds from each sale go towards supporting the partnership.
Resource Conservation Manitoba recognizes the hard work done by school-based organizers in schools across Manitoba. Your efforts set the bar high for other schools in Manitoba, Canada and around the world. Thank you.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comments!
Jackie Avent
Active and Safe Routes to School Manitoba Program Coordinator
Resource Conservation Manitoba
3rd Floor - 303 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3B 2B4
Phone: (204) 925-3773
Fax: (204) 942-4207
e-mail:
