The Bowling Green community is invited to participate in Walk & Roll to School Day, which will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 4, with all Bowling Green public and nonpublic/parochial schools coordinating activities that encourage their students to participate.
Walk & Roll to School Day is a part of the city’s Safe Routes to School Travel Plan currently being developed with guidance from a 15-member committee comprised of city and school officials. The goal of Ohio’s Safe Routes to School Program is to assist communities in developing and implementing projects and programs that encourage and enable children in grades K-12, including those with disabilities, to walk or bike to school safely.
The plan will take approximately three months to complete, and should be ready for public review and comment in late November. Local planning consultant Reveille and Mannik Smith Group are assisting the city in the plan’s development.
As a critical educational component of the school travel planning process, Walk & Roll to School Day is an annual event that involves communities from across the world walking and rolling to school on the same day. It began in 1997 as a one-day event. Today, thousands of schools across America participate every October.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that children and adolescents get one hour or more of physical activity each day. Research suggests that physically active kids are more likely to become healthy, physically active adults, underscoring the importance of developing the habit of regular physical activity early.
According to Mayor Mike Aspacher, “The whole community benefits from efforts to enable and encourage more children to walk, bike or roll to school safely. Bowling Green is committed to taking the long-term steps necessary to activating the community through multi-model/pedestrian connectivity solutions.”
