Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
Taking one step at a time, Daniel Pratt Elementary School participated in National Walk to School Day Tuesday. Students were encouraged to meet at the Prattville YMCA with other peers, teachers and parents that wanted to participate.
The International Walk to School Day is a holiday observed in order to facilitate and encourage communities to become safer places for walking, biking and rolling to everyone in that community. Locally, it included the trip to school in the morning.
The National Walk and Bike to School Organization looks to empower communities to make active trips to school safe as well as the preferred choice for families. The organization promotes safe walking and rolling by using safe routes to school, fostering advocacy for safe streets and practicing and recognizing safety practices.
This holiday not only celebrates a safe and active way to start a child’s morning, it also gets communities, schools and students involved and brings safe practices to light. It also is teaching children life long skills on how to be safe walking, biking or rolling on the sidewalk.
According to Johns Hopkins Community Resources, the event began in 1997 and has become part of a movement for year-round safe routes to school and today thousands of schools across the U.S., in all 50 states, the District of Colombia and Puerto Rico participate.
The Alabama Department of Transportation, or ALDOT, stated that the holiday gives children, parents, schoolteachers and community leaders an opportunity to teach and promote safe walking practices, and also promotes the health benefits of walking and identifying safety deficiencies.
At Daniel Pratt Elementary Tuesday morning, it was nothing but smiles, with one teacher even dressing up as a traffic cone in order to promote safe practices.
