We first introduced the Walk/Bike-to-School Challenge in the spring of 2021 as an augmentation to our Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programming; we hosted another Walk/Bike-to-School Challenge this October for students in area Poudre School District schools to see how many days they could walk or ride their bike to school. In late September, each of the following schools launched a challenge to their students to see how many days they could walk or ride their bikes to school during October.
For the elementary schools, those who walked or rode to school for at least four days earned a Bronze certificate. Those who did so for 5-8 days earned a Silver certificate. Those who walked or rode nine or more of the 19 eligible school days in October earned the top recognition of a Gold certificate.
For Kinard Middle School, the number of days was slightly different only because they had one more school day during the month (20 days total) than the elementary schools did. Thus, at least four days earned Bronze, 5-9 days earned Silver, and ten or more days made Gold.
The results are in–and are once again impressive. Over 300 students participated across the nine schools, earning certificates and nearly 80% earning “Gold.”
RESULTS SUMMARY
Based on the above results, factoring in just the minimum number of days required to achieve each level and a conservative 2- or 2.5-mile average round-trip per student to go to school, participating students walked or bicycled over 8,000 miles during October this year.
Congratulations to each school and all the students who particpated.
A special thanks to each school’s P.E. teacher for coordinating the challenge within their school, and for all other school staff and teachers for supporting the Challenge and encouraging the students.
Don’t see your student’s school listed above? Feel free to share a link to this blog post with your PE teacher or principal, indicating you want your school to participate. We’d love to see more elementary and middle schools participate in these Challenges.