STP has Inaugural meeting

CAPTION: Barry Mills and Eileen Conway-Martin of the East Prince Senior Initiative discuss improvements they would like to see on the walkabout Tuesday in Summerside. Photo QUIGLEY/ JOURNAL PIONEER

School Travel Planning program walkabout

S. RYAN QUIGLEY

JOURNAL PIONEER

SUMMERSIDE- The School Travel Planning program had a walkabout in streets surrounding Parkside Elementary in Summerside on Tuesday.

The School Travel Planning program is designed to encourage elementary aged kids to walk to school to keep them healthy while making sure the path is safe.

The walkabout Tuesday was designed to identify any hazards that may affect a child’s walk to and from the school.

The program, implemented by Green Communities Canada and facilitated locally by Recreation P.E.I., gathers stakeholders, such as school board officials, parents, community leaders and discusses ways to implement plans for a safer, more active environment.

The Parkside school will be the first school in Summerside to introduce the Canada wide program, while Summerside will be the pilot city in the province.

Peggy Miles, School Travel Planning Facilitator for P.E.I. said there are a lot of positives as far as safety and environment for the kids is concerned in the city.

“We have good infrastructure so we need to be grateful to the municipality for that and it’s a beautiful route, as someone mentioned, you know lots of trees and greenery, so an enjoyable walk for kids to and from school.”

There’s a lot of research that is going into the program and enthusiastic schools will make the program successful, said Miles.

“Basically we take the issues, the strengths and the challenges we have and find solutions for those.”

Janet Cameron, principal of Parkside school said her expectations of the program is to get more kids walking and biking to school.0

“We’ve got some great ideas now, some really doable manageable things. So we got to meet just one more time and I think we can set some dates for the kids to actually get out and do some things.”

 They are looking to have things ready by end of May or June and to carry over to next year, said Cameron.

“We welcome the opportunity and really feel that Summerside is a safe place to do this in.”

Michelle Askew, Chairperson of P.E.I.’s School Travel Program, said Tuesday was an important step in the program by checking to make sure things were safe.

“The goal is to have the first sort of event in the spring, so in the next month or so have a special day really devoted to getting as many kids as possible to walk along with teachers and parents.”

Building a program that works for the kids is something they need to do, said Askew.

“So everyone gets kind of a taste for how much fun it could be to walk to and from school just like our grandparents did, who use to say they would walk uphill to school barefoot in the snow.”