Brooks School Students Celebrate a Month of Walking on Walk/Ride Day

Fourth Grade, Fifth Grade, and Brooks School Receive “Golden Shoe” Awards

Medford, May 25, 2012 ~ All fourth and fifth graders at the Brooks Elementary School spent the past month improving their fitness and having fun, by participating in the month-long Brooks Walking Challenge. The students received free pedometers, provided by Medford Health Matters and Safe Routes to Schools, to keep track of their steps for a month.  They celebrated their achievement Friday morning, May 25^th. The Brooks Walking Challenge is part of Walk/Ride Days, a program that celebrates and promotes the use of sustainable, active transportation in Medford and other communities. Syrah McGivern, Community Transformation Grant Coordinator for the Medford Board of Health, emceed the event. 

Brooks School Principal Michael Simon accepted a “Golden Shoe” award on behalf of the school for its whole-hearted embrace of the Walking Challenge. Awards were also given to the fourth-grade and fifth-grade teachers for coordinating their classes. Watch a video of the event here, and see photos here.

McGivern introduced Janie Katz-Christy, the director of Green Streets Initiative, which founded the Walk/Ride Day program. Katz-Christie briefly described Walk/Ride Days and its long-term goal of creating safer, healthier, and quieter streets and more vibrant communities. She also gave a pop-quiz to the students about walking, which they participated in with great enthusiasm.

Long-distance running star Lindsay Willard (pictured at left) entranced the children by telling them about her initiation into running as a 12-year-old student. A Medford resident, Willard was the fifth American woman to cross the finish line at this year’s Boston Marathon, taking 17^th place among women overall. She crossed the finish line with a time of 2 hours, 55 minutes, and 53 seconds—the second-fastest time among Massachusetts women.

Other guests at the event included Samantha Fonseca-Moreira of Safe Routes to Schools, and Susan Altman of Green Medford, who coordinates Medford Walk/Ride Days.

McGivern told the audience that Brooks School students and teachers helped the program enormously by testing the Walking Challenge, which will be rolled out to all Medford schools this coming fall.

The Brooks Walking Challenge is a project of Medford Walk-Ride Days, which celebrates and promotes the use of sustainable and active transportation. This event was organized by the City of Medford, Safe Routes to School, and Green Medford.

 In addition to the Brooks School, fifteen retail businesses in Medford Square and elsewhere are participating in Walk-Ride Days, which occur on the last Friday of each month. All customers who go car-free to any of these retailers on that day will receive a special incentive. Also, residents who commute from Medford car-free on Walk/Ride Days can be entered into a monthly raffle by checking in at http://greenstreets.mapc.org/. Visit http://gogreenstreets.org/retailers/medford to find all the participating Medford businesses and other partners in Walk/Ride Days.

To join Walk/Ride Days or ask questions, call Susan at 781-526-4714, or email greenmedford[at]gmail.com. Green Medford seeks to educate the Medford community to understand our environmental impact, and to empower members of our community to make more sustainable energy choices related to homes and businesses, transportation, and food. More information at: www.greenmedford.org and on Facebook (search for Green Medford).