International Walk Your Child To School Day Celebrated
Come celebrate International Walk Your Child to School Day with the students, faculty, parents and community members at Diamond View Elementary School on Wednesday, October 3, 2012. The walk will begin at 7:30 a.m. as the Palm Beach County Safe Kids coalition strives to educate students about pedestrian safety and examine the traffic dangers surrounding their school.
Since 2000, an average of 355 unintentional pedestrian fatalities among children ages 14 and under has occurred each year. Children in low-income, densely populated, urban residential areas are at a substantially higher risk of pedestrian-related injury. To combat this national problem, the Safe Kids Worldwide, and program sponsor FedEx have developed Safe Kids Walk This Way,a multifaceted project designed to enhance safety for our children when walking to school.
A news conference will be held at the school immediately following the walk at around 8:30 a.m. The news conference will highlight parent and child participation in Walk to School Day and the creation of a new school safety committee that will meet following the event to decide on objectives for improving pedestrian safety near the school.
We encourage you to become involved in this program! In the meantime, here are some helpful tips for walking safely with your child:
- Never allow children under age 10 to cross streets alone. Children need to be old enough to develop the skills to cross streets safely.
- Always model and teach proper pedestrian behavior.
- Instruct children to look left, right and left again when crossing streets, and to continue looking as they cross.
- Make sure children don’t run into streets or dart from between parked cars.
- Require children to wear retro reflective materials and carry a flashlight at dawn, at dusk, and in bad weather.
Diamond View Elementary School is located at 5300 Haverhill Rd., Greenacres, FL 33463. Directions: I-95 to Lantana Rd. Go west to Haverhill Rd, and turn north. Diamond View is located on the east side of Haverhill 1/2 mile north of Lantana Rd.
Contact Kelly Powell, Program Director, Safe Kids Palm Beach County at 561-727-1048 or kpowell@gocpg.org for more information regarding this event.
