Students and staff at Deerwood Elementary School in Thompson are taking their health in their own hands with their new Walk On program designed to get kids walking to school.
Laurie McInnes, vice-principal at Deerwood School, along with Debbie Belyea, a teacher at the school, were at the School District of Mystery Lake board meeting on March 9 to talk about the program. They brought along Grade 4 student Maekenzie Pilon, Grade 3 student Joshua Belyea, Grade 1 student Cam Belyea, and Grade 5 student Nathan Dyke to help tell the board members what the program is all about.
McInnes says the program first came to the mind of the staff members and parent council after the parking lot got congested with parents dropping off their students for school. The staff got together and came up with an idea to get students walking to school - even students that lived far from the area - by having their parents drop them off at a certain point in town or having the kids walk right from their homes. They also wanted to showcase the benefits of walking to school to parents.
Students at Deerwood Elementary School were shown a video all about keeping in shape and the importance of exercise and good nutrition, and how it's integral to develop good exercise and eating habits at an early age.
"The kids were totally inspired by the video and kept on talking to all their parents about this great video that was shown," McInnes says. "It just seemed to get the staff very excited about it as well. And of course we had the excitement from all the kids as well - they have come up with many reasons about why walking is good for us."
Some of these reasons were published in The Dragon, Deerwood Elementary School's newsletter. Their 10 reasons for walking to school are: it's fun; it helps you sleep at night; it helps you feel better about yourself; it helps you to be more attentive at school; it keeps your body fit; it reduced stress; it keeps you away from the television; it builds and keeps your bones and muscles strong; it decreases the chances of getting type 2 diabetes; and it leads to a healthy, happy lifestyle.
Through the Walk On program, the school recognizes students who walk to school by giving them walking tickets, which the students fill out with their names and the reasons they walk to school. These tickets are then entered into a draw drum at the school library and the students can win Walk On t-shirts in a multitude of bright, fun colours.
