A new initiative funded in part by the provincial government is encouraging area students to walk, ride and roll to school.
The City of Sarnia has received an 18-month Active School Travel Grant for $102,000 from the Ontario Government and Green Communities Canada, a national non-profit based out of Peterborough.
The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon at St. Michael's Catholic School in Bright's Grove, which is one our four elementary schools where grant projects will be implemented.
Active School Travel Facilitator Amy Weiler said the initiative aims to increase the number of students to walk or ride a bike to school, while also reducing traffic in school zones, making those areas safer.
"So we are focusing on four schools in the Sarnia area as part of this grant, St. Michael's, Rosedale, P.E. McGibbon and Errol Road, and the project elements take us through many stages of planning. So we start with data collection and analyzing what is needed for this school in each area to be safer," said Weiler. "So we're working with principals, students and parents to build a local committee, and then we will collect data and see what is needed, and then from there we'll implement a plan of educational activities for pedestrian safety, bike safety, the best route to get to school so you avoid areas with no sidewalks or no traffic lights."
Director of Engineering David Jackson said the City of Sarnia will also be improving infrastructure around the school areas to make them safer as part of the initiative.
Jackson said the measures will be similar to those at Errol Road Public School.
"So we were able to add a sidewalk on the section of street that sees a lot of kids walking that before had to walk on the road, now they can walk on the sidewalk. We were also able to reconfigure how their school bus drop-off works so that now when parents are dropping their kids off, they don't have to park on the road and run across the road, they're now able to pull in to the parking lot, so it's much safer, so we've seen a lot of positive impact there already."
Jackson said residents have called for increased safety measures around schools.
"We often get concerns from parents and residents about safety around school zones and so we would deal with those on one-off issues, but then when we were made aware of this initiative where we would all collaborate together, so the school boards, the city, the police and the health unit to proactively work together to make school zones safer for children," he said.
St. Michael's Principal Steve DeGurse said the funding should be put to good use at the Bright's Grove school.
"Currently on Wildwood Drive [outside the school] there is not a sidewalk, so that'll be one area that we'll be keen to see with this particular project that there is some funding available and maybe that's one area we can address," the principal said.
DeGurse said it's great to see the community working together to encourage kids to be active.
"It's throughout the curriculum, so it ties in beautifully," he said. "When students come to school ready to start their day, then they walk into their first period class and they're engaged, they've maybe caught some fresh air in the morning and they're ready to go rather than taking the extra opportunity to be at home and not be with their friends and peers before the school day actually starts."
