By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
We have all heard the stories – the days when kids actually walked to school, sometimes five miles and uphill both ways.
Now, through a grant funded program, staff at O’Loughlin Elementary School are taking steps to help bring walking to school back in style.
O’Loughlin Elementary is one of 15 schools in the state awarded a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation to implement the Walking School Bus Program.
PedNet Coalition consultant, Robert Johnson, Columbia, MO, is helping start the program in Kansas.
“The best way to think about the Walking School Bus is to imagine the yellow school bus program without the bus,” Johnson said.
“You have routes that are pre-determined for safety and efficiency, you have kids that are registered for the program and then you have adult volunteers who travel along these routes in the morning picking up kids right at their front door usually – although there are different ways to do the program – and walking with them to school.”
Johnson added many parents do not let their kids walk to school because of safety concerns and the Walking School Bus, “is a way for the moms and dads to feel safe about the idea of their kids walking to school.”
O’Loughlin Walking School Bus Coordinator, Terri Tramel says the program will not only help alleviate the morning traffic on Hall Street when parents drive their kids to O’Loughlin, but said it is also good for the kids.
“Lots of times, kids have a lot of energy in the morning and (walking to school) will give them a chance to walk and talk with their friends and help get some of that energy out, so the students are ready to focus on solid course work in the morning, “ Tramel said.
The $2,000 dollar grant will be used for buying orange reflective vests for the adult volunteers, informational materials and incentives for the students who participate.
Tramel said she is currently looking for adult volunteers and hopes O’Loughlin will have their first Walking School Buses ready to take off in early September.