Tour de Schools!

What a great day! The weather was a little crummy, but my spirits are soaring from a day of visiting several schools.

My day started out at Benson High School, presenting to a couple of magnet focus classes about the Activate Omaha mission of incorporating physical activity into every day life. It was so fun to be talking to older students for once - usually my audience is PTA parents or elementary aged kids. The students asked good questions - and somebody from both classes asked me if I had ridden MY bike to the school this morning! :) Unfortunately, family logistics dictated a car trip for me today, but I promised them that I would come back to watch their final presentations about how to fight childhood obesity in the Benson area and that I would arrive via bicycle. I can't wait to go back!

Let me also say, that I can't get this idea out of my head: Benson Bunnies on Bikes. There is one small bike rack at the school (that I saw, anyway), and it would be great if we could see it filling up in the mornings.

After a quick stop for coffee in the Benson district, I was off to Westbrook Elementary to begin the video shooting project for Safe Routes Nebraska. Teacher Leader Glen Jagels and PE Teacher Derek Keesling did a fantastic job talking about the great walking program they have going on at Westbrook.

Swanson Elementary was next. Principal Laura Croom showed us the very creative tally system for tracking the number of kids who walk and roll on Feet First Fridays. When the container is full of balls, the school will earn a bike blender party!! Swanson has a beautiful park/arboretum in its backyard - what a beautiful backdrop to any morning walk.

Last up was Saddlebrook where Principal Mark Suing and 4th grade teacher Robert Zook talked about the Bike and Hike program that the 4th graders are tracking. Check out this awesome display! Looks like those 4th graders had better watch out for the 2nd graders. Of course, we had to demo the bike blender for the video guy, too! :)

Special thanks to Kelly Morgan from Safe Routes Nebraska for coming to Omaha to visit these schools for the video. Dan Schneider, videographer/director/producer extraordinare, is a hoot and it was a fun day! (Here he is video taping little feet walking past him in the hallway! He's gonna love me for posting this one.)

What A Week!

It has been a crazy (good crazy) week, and we have a lot to catch up on!

We did a mini walk audit at Columbian Elementary school this week during student arrival time. The school has a fantastic student safety patol, but that still does not prevent vehicle congestion and frustration. We're getting a walking distance map printed for the school and plan to pilot a couple of walking school busses on Walk to School Day!

We also had a fantastic meeting at Rohwer Elementary (Millard Public Schools) this week. The Rohwer Rockets are fortunate to have such an awesome Principal and active living advocate in Mrs. Brosamle. Walking school busses, walk to school day and bike to school day are just the beginning of what we can accomplish at this school.

Rohwer got my attention right away as I pulled up for the meeting - tons of bike parking, and even a dedicated scooter parking rack! It was the adult-sized bike that got my attention, though. It belongs to one of the teachers, which was music to my ears.

Bike Blender and Bingo

We had a wonderful time with our friends at Westbrook Elementary last night! Westbrook is the home of one of our initial Walk and Roll to School programs, and our spirits are always lifted when we hang out with the Wildcats.

Last night was the annual Bingo Night sponsored by the school's Community Club, complete with pizza, prizes, popcorn, and pedal-powered smoothies, courtesy of the bike blender! The odometer tells the story - 8+ miles pedaled while producing yummy "Jack-o-Lantern" smoothies.

Pictured here is the NEW (commercially made) bike blender, courtesy of the grant we received from the National Center for Safe Routes to School. The Community Bike Shop came through for us again with a free bike and top level Blenderologist assistance with installation. Shown in the photo is my fabulous assistant (aka my hubby) who is putting the finishing touches on the odometer/spedometer and the pedal-powered lights.

Major kudos once again to HyVee - this time the Peony Park location - for helping out their neighborhood school by donating the ingredients and recipe for the smoothies! Folks, there are registered dietitians at each HyVee, and they are awesome. Their dedication to our community is much appreciated!

I would be remiss if I did not give a special shout out to Lauren, who became my very able assistant. She jumped right in and helped us all night...even devising a system for making sure we had the bike in a gear that was just right for each rider.

Lauren's parents lead a walking school bus from their home each morning when the weather is nice. They've even had kids dropped off at their house to join them! The example they have set for the school is very inspirational, and we applaud their dedication.

Westbrook Update

Yesterday's visit to Westbrook Elementary just confirms what we already knew: this school and these kids are awesome! The Dynamic Duo of Principal Cindy Vann and Teacher Leader Glen Jagels are so great to work with.

We went to the school assembly to help celebrate the 2nd Quarter awarding of the Golden Shoe Award. Westbrook offers a walking club before school in addition to encouraging kids to walk and roll to school each day. Frequent Walker cards are used to track particpation, and each fully punched card is entered into a drawing for a quarterly prize! This quarter's prize was a flag football set, which was won by Paul, a frequent walking 4th grader.

The really big prize, though, is the coveted Golden Shoe Award, which is given to the classroom with the most overall particpation. The 5th graders were sad to give it up, but they were beat out this time by the 2nd grade!

A delightful bonus from the morning was to see the presentation of nearly $1700 to a representative from the American Red Cross. The Wildcats raised this money for Haitian relief, and the leadership shown by some of the older students in the school to organize and coordinate this was very impressive.

Watch for some safety improvements coming soon to Robertson Drive in front of Westbrook as we work to get the street changed to one-way during drop off and pick up hours.

Fullerton Fair

What a blast we had at Fullerton Magnet Elementary last night! Fullerton is a very big school, so when they do something, they do it big. The event last night was the Science Fair/Health and Wellness Fair/Waffle Man dinner. We trotted out the Bike Blender for it's first full scale maneuver. Sure, we'd tested it at the bike shop and for a small group at Saddlebrook Elementary, but this was a scale unlike we have tried before!!

Major thanks to the 156th/West Maple Hy-Vee store who generously donated the smoothie ingredients. Store Dietitian Amanda came through with a great recipe for us, and was on hand last night to hand them out to families as smoothies were blended and sampled.

Talk about "trial by fire" - last night was the first official event outing for our new and fabulous intern, Kassi. She jumped right in and did a great job!

Along with strawberry/banana smoothies, and Walk to School zipper pulls, we also had the Fullerton walking distance map on display so that kids and parents could find their house and estimate the time it would take to walk to school. This school is located right in the middle of a large subdivison with great sidewalk connections, so there is a lot of potential.

Thanks, Falcons!!

Next Up: Field Club Elementary!

We can add more names to the list of fantastic school staff members we've met with lately! 

Prinicpal Barb Wild and P.E. teacher Jill Parkert were great to chat with this afternoon about the possibilities of bringing the Walk 'n Roll movement to Field Club Elementary.  Walk 'n Roll Wednesdays are a possibility, as are some walking school busses.  It was great to hear about how they view neighborhood communication and interaction as a positive benefit to their school.  Field Club is a beautiful and historic part of town, and it will be great to work with them.

We're looking forward to chatting with their PTA soon and getting things rolling after spring break!