WoW! What a Start to the School Year!
The school year is off to a great start with kids of all ages walking and biking to school. With the help of GreenTown, parents from many of our local schools are hosting Walk or Wheel (WoW!) events to encourage kids to walk or bike to school. Some are even organizing bike buses that enable kids along the route to participate in a group bike party on the way to school and to build a sustainable bike commuting habit!
National Walk to School Day takes place on Wednesday, October 7, and several schools, including Almond Elementary, Santa Rita Elementary, and Bullis Charter School, are hosting WoW! events on that day to celebrate and highlight the benefits of walking and biking to school. Other schools, with GreenTown’s encouragement, are hosting WoW! activities throughout the month, on the October date that works best for their school communities. Here’s a snapshot of what’s happening this month:
Oct 2 - Springer WoW! Day (part of a monthly series) plus Bike Bus, Covington WoW! Day, and Loyola Walk ‘n Roll Event with GreenTown’s blender bike and a safety talk
Oct 7 - Almond, Santa Rita, and Bullis Charter School WoW! Events plus a Santa Rita Bike Bus. GreenTown will be out at Almond’s WoW! Event with the blender bike and a safety talk.
Oct 16 - Gardner Bullis WoW! Day and Bike Bus (part of a mostly monthly series)
Oct 23 - Oak Avenue WoW! Event (part of a monthly series)
Congrats and thank you to all of the parents who organize WoW! Days, and to those parents who help remind their kids to walk and bike to school. A high five to all the kids using their strong bodies to power their way to school. The more kids that are walking and biking, the better: it’s safer, it’s good for the brain, and the environmental benefits add up - from avoiding toxic air emissions to reducing greenhouse gases.
Speaking of the safety in numbers, bike buses are a thing now, thanks to Terry Barton, a Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition member and GreenTown supporter, and the parents who are leading the charge! Momentum from a bike bus started late last year at Springer and has continued into this year. A weekly bike bus runs from the north towards campus and often celebrates with a victory lap around the blacktop. Gardner Bullis also added a bike bus to its Walk or Wheel! (WoW!) activities this year. The bike bus runs weekly from the University Ave neighborhood, and they will be adding a line from the Los Altos Ave attendance area. GreenTown worked with Gardner parent leaders to train them how to safely and successfully take a group of young kids to school in an organized bike bus. Finally, Santa Rita will run its first bike bus of the year on October 7! If you’re interested in learning more about how to engage parents and students around alternative transportation to school, contact us at info@greentownlosaltos.org. We’re happy to chat about it!
In other bike news:
Cub Scouts focus on bike safety. The Cub Scouts locally are focusing on bike safety this year! Woo hoo! The Almond Elementary troop hosted a bike rodeo - an educational bike safety event - to recruit new scouts. The Cub Scout troop at Loyola participated in the school’s Walk ‘n Roll event by providing helmet fit instruction and a bike fix-it station. Keep up the great work.
Los Altos High School (LAHS) Green Team students will “ride” in the Festival of Lights Parade. The Green Team in partnership with the LAHS PTSA Sustainability Committee made a successful bid for a group of lighted bicycles and bedecked bucket bikes to ride in the Festival of Light’s Parade this November 29! Make sure to give them a BIG shout out when you see them ride by! Congrats to all those that made this happen.
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