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CBF Grants Help Schools ‘Walk to School’

Five Chicagoland schools will mark International Walk to School Day Oct. 4 for the first time with a range of activities due to mini-grants awarded by the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation.

Now in its ninth year, International Walk to School Day is expected to include 3,000 U.S. schools. The idea is to walk to school together with a purpose – to promote health, safety, physical activity and concern for the environment.

The mini-grants are co-sponsored by the Cook County Department of Public Health, American Heart Association, Safe Kids Chicago, CLIF Bar, Walk Across Illinois and the League of Illinois Bicyclists.

“Vehicular traffic is a nightmare,” explained Chuck Freiberger, principal of Hawthorne Elementary School in Elmhurst. “Many parents are reluctant to have their children walk for both real and perceived reasons,” he wrote in the school’s winning application. This event might encourage some of them to give walking or bicycling a try.”

Like most of the grant winners, Hawthorne will spend its $500 cash award on refreshments and materials to promote the event, plus raffle prizes as an incentive to boost participation.

Schools also receive up to 400 Clif Z-Bar health and energy snacks, a large outdoor banner, Five Walk to School Day carrying signs, 10 Walk to School Day t-shirts and safety vests for volunteers or raffle prizes, Walk to School Day stickers for the entire school, a free one-day Safe Routes to School Training Course for the school district, plus technical assistance.

For Havlicek Elementary in Berwyn, the event will be used to kick off the school’s weekly walking club. “Hopefully the outcome would be that throughout the year, children and their parents, staff members and even elderly community neighbors would walk together,” wrote principal Nancy Akin.

Other mini-grant winners are Nicholson Specialty School for Science and Mathematics in Englewood; Edna M. Rollins Elementary in Aurora; and Three Oaks School in Cary.