By Jaclyn Irvine
Every Centretown student who walked, biked or skated to school last week joined more than 3 million walkers around the world in International Walk to School Week.
Green Communities of Canada who organized the walk in Ontario wanted to promote physical activity, environmental awareness and safer communities, says Daniel Spence of EnviroCentre, who co-ordinated Ottawa’s program this year.
“We need to do what we can to get kids more physically active and less sedentary,” says Jim Watson, Ontario’s minister of health promotion. The MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean accompanied nieces Olivia, 13, and Nichola, 10, on their daily walk to Hopewell Avenue Public School last Monday in support of the event.
As the week wrapped up, the Ontario government launched a program requiring elementary students to participate in 20 minutes of physical activity each day, in addition to physical education classes. The program, which was a Liberal election promise, will be in effect by the end of the year, says Watson.
“Kids not walking to school is becoming a huge problem,” says Joan Spice, an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustee. “Anything that can promote physical activity for 20 minutes is an excellent thing.”
Obesity rates among Canadian children aged seven to 13 tripled between 1981 and 1996, says Watson, citing a 2004 provincial health report. There has been almost a 300-per-cent increase in overall Canadian obesity rates.
Watson says there is an urgent need to promote healthy lifestyles to children.
No schools in Centretown officially registered in the event this year, but Spence says many schools don’t register but still promote the walk or participate in events.
Elgin Street Public School has actively supported the walk in the past. This year, principal Shelley Langlois decided not to register in the program because it fell during a busy week in the school year. She did promote the week to parents and students with posters, newsletters and announcements.
“I’d like to think that parents are taking the time to walk their children to school,” says Langlois. “But the reality is parents have schedules and it’s just not that easy.”
Roger Beaudry takes his daughter Katherine, 6, on an OC Transpo bus to Elgin Street school every day. He hadn’t heard of the international walk week but says they would not have walked even if he had. “The bus is more convenient,” he says. Other parents echoed his sentiment.
Spice guessed that close to 60 per cent of Centretown students take the school bus each day. Other students arrive by public transportation or in cars, which leaves a minority of students who get any exercise on their way to school.
“Many parents just don’t have the time to walk with their children to school,” says Spice. “And a lot of parents aren’t comfortable with younger children walking by themselves.”
Other students, especially at French immersion schools such as Elgin, are coming from considerable distances which make walking unrealistic.
Co-ordinators of the event recommend having parents or busses drop students off a few blocks from school so that they have to walk at least some of the way.
Green Communities of Canada has a package of programs called Active and Safe Routes to School that addresses these issues.
The walking school bus is one such program. Volunteer parents take turns walking to school and picking up groups of students along the way, says Spence, who helps design the programs for schools and parent councils.
Spence introduced the walking school bus to Woodroffe Avenue Public School, located near Carlingwood mall, after administrators expressed concerns about traffic in the area.
“Our philosophy is that children need to be active, healthy and fit,” says principal Chantal Parent. “This program is definitely something we want to build on.”
So far no Centretown schools have joined the Active and Safe Routes to School program, but principals such as Langlois can see the potential.
“It’s easy to get kids excited about things that we promote as fun and meaningful,” she says.