(EMAILWIRE.COM, October 06, 2008 ) Costa Mesa, CA -- Council member Katrina Foley has led the effort to promote walk to school week for the last 4 years. This year's participation by 6 elementary schools is the most ever. "I hope the experience will encourage families to start walking or biking every day, and not just during this one week in October," said Katrina Foley.

She continued, "We have more traffic and fewer parking spaces so it's critical that we return to the time when students walked and biked to school. Plus, it's healthier and provides a nice opportunity to spend quality time with your kids."

WHAT: 6 Costa Mesa Elementary schools: California, College Park, Davis, Killybrooke, Pomona, and Sonora Elementary Schools and their PTAs, City of Costa Mesa, and Newport Mesa Unified School District in Costa Mesa will join schools from around the world to celebrate International Walk to School Week October 6-10, 2008.

WHO: Council Member Katrina Foley will join hundreds of students, parents, teachers and other public officials at several schools this next week to promote healthier lifestyles and safer routes to neighborhood schools.

WHERE/When: Meet up with Katrina, other public officials, and Costa Mesa's Traffic Police at one of the the following locations and days: Sonora School 966 Sonora Road Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at 7:30; Davis School, Friday, October 10, 2008 at 7:30.

SIGNIFICANCE: Walk to School Day is patterned after the program developed by the National Center for Safe Routes to School and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center’s “Walking School Bus” program. Both programs address:

* changing behaviors of children and parents to reduce risk of obesity by safely walking and biking to school;

* learning the safest routes to school;

* understanding traffic signs, signals and personal safety related to pedestrians;

* making walking and bicycling appealing while creating lifelong skills;

* reducing pollution;

* instilling awareness in children that will help them as young adults to be safer drivers

More than 1000 students from Costa Mesa Elementary schools will be walking and biking to school that week along with parents, teachers and community leaders.

This year, staff from the Costa Mesa Police and Fire Departments, and the Recreation and Transportation Services Divisions have jointly coordinated this local program with NMUSD, the School Nutrition Program staff, involved school principals, teachers, PTA members, and Community Emergency Response Team volunteers. A healthy breakfast will be provided to the students, and the benefits of eating a nourishing breakfast will be discussed with them by the School District’s nutrition staff.

Now twelve years old, International Walk to School Day is expected to include 3,000 schools from all 50 states. The idea is to walk to school together with a purpose — to promote health, safety, physical activity and concern for the environment. Walkers from the U.S. will join children and adults in 36 countries around the world. The event this week are part of a week of festivities celebrating International Walk to School Week (October 6-10, 2008).

Students, teachers and parents in Costa Mesa will also participate in a survey to identify concerns about the safety of the routes taken to school. City staff will collect the surveys, identify any problem spots, make improvements or recommendations for improvements, and use the data to seek safe route to school grants for neighborhood improvements. Last year the city received more than $500,000 in safe route to school grants.

To learn more about National Walk to School Day, visit the official website at www.walktoschool-usa.org. The website, created and hosted by Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center at UNC’s Highway Safety Research Center in Chapel Hill, NC, includes resources such as health information, specifics on walk events and a downloadable checklist to help determine how friendly a community is for walking.

For further information on this event, please contact Brenda Emrick, Fire Protection Specialist at (714) 327-7406 or Council Member Katrina Foley at (949) 244-9010.

Contact Information:
Katrina Foley, City Council Member
Katrina Foley
Tel: (949) 244-9010
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