We are still beaming from the tremendous embrace of Ruby Bridges Day hosted at 42 elementary schools throughout Marin. A huge thank you to our volunteers, principals, and teachers who made record numbers’ possible. Similarly, International Walk and Roll to School Days had jaw-dropping numbers of families walking and rolling to school. We were honored to have the Marin IJ cover both events at Pleasant Valley and Loma Verde schools.

Lots of buddies walked, biked, rode the bus, and carpooled together for increased fun and safety. Read about the Buddy Up contest to learn the winners.

(Photo) Buddy-Up winners from Rancho Elementary)

Enthusiastic Turnout Marked First Ruby Bridges Day in Marin

With an impressive student turnout at 42 elementary schools, Safe Routes to Schools celebrated its first ever county-wide Ruby Bridges Walk and Roll to School Day on Nov. 15. The event highlighted the significance of Ruby Bridges, a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement during the 1960s.

Ruby Bridges made history as the first African American child to attend an all-white elementary school in New Orleans. At the age of six, she bravely faced hostility not only during her daily walk to class, but also when all her classmates left the school upon her arrival.

“This celebration provides a unique opportunity to teach students about equity and the civil rights movement while making connections between transportation and racial justice in our work,” said Gwen Froh, Safe Routes to Schools Program Director.
Prior to the event, all elementary school room teachers read Ruby’s inspirational story to their students, to foster empathy and encourage them to participate in the event.

Deena Blas, a parent volunteer from Pleasant Valley, said, “Ruby Bridges Walk and Roll to School Day is a call to action to continue our journey to end racism and all forms of bullying in our schools.” Blas also highlighted the environmental benefits of reducing vehicular traffic on the roads. Blas’ school had a turnout of over 200 students proudly waving purple Ruby Bridges Flags. The Marin Independent Journal covered the event at Pleasant Valley. To read the story, click HERE.

Despite unfavorable weather forecasts, schools remained steadfast in holding their event. Loma Verde parent volunteer Kelly Smith remarked, “If Ruby was able to take crowds of yelling people, screaming threats, and getting things thrown at her, we can take a little rain.”

Venetia Valley’s parent volunteer, Heather Crossen, echoed Smith’s sentiment, stating, “Ruby overcame all obstacles in her route to school every day. What’s a little rain to us? Maybe we’ll just have a bad hair day.”
Bahia Vista Elementary reported the participation of approximately 250 students, with San Rafael Police Sergeant Scott Ingels distributing incentives to the walkers and rollers.

The celebration extended beyond Marin County, with the American Automobile Association (AAA) reporting that over 650,000 students nationwide walked in honor of Ruby Bridges.

Rainbow Quest Contest Planned as Part of Spring Walk & Roll Events

Follow the rainbow to a healthier planet and less traffic congestion. This spring, Safe Routes will hold a “Rainbow Quest” contest to encourage students to walk, bike, carpool, or bus to school. The spring contest gives students who actively travel to school the chance to participate in a raffle at their school, with prizes provided by Safe Routes. This year’s raffle prizes will be scooters and helmets.

“The contest is a fun way to encourage students to cultivate the habit of walking or riding to school. Once habits are set, kids become walkers and riders for life,” said Monica Leifer, Safe Routes’ bilingual volunteer coordinator.

Schools will hold four weekly events on April 17, April 24, May 1, and May 8 as a lead-up to National Bike to School Day on May 8. On contest days, students who use active modes of transportation or who carpool or bus will get a stamp on their contest card. On May 8, students who show a stamped card will be able to enter the raffle at their school.

The Rainbow Quest contest for 2024 follows last year’s J.E.D.I. contest. Over 3,000 students participated last year.

Other events planned for the spring include Valentine’s Day (February 7), Dr. Seuss Day (March 6), and a Bike Hero contest in May. Bike Heroes are students who bike regularly to school and are nominated for recognition by parents or school administrators.

From K to 12, Buddy Up Winners Announced

The 2023 Buddy Up Contest had every age group represented from kindergarteners to high schoolers, fostering a sense of camaraderie and promoting sustainable transportation habits. A total of thirty-eight Buddy Up groups, representing 17 different schools, participated in this heartwarming event that unfolded from October 1 to November 15.

To enter the competition, parents and students nominated groups of students who regularly walk, bike, carpool, or take the bus together. The narratives shared by the participants painted a vivid picture of their journeys to school, with phrases like “they feel stronger together,” “the bigger kids help the younger ones,” “they are chatting all the way,” “there’s fresh air,” “they have a sense of camaraderie,” and “it is fun to be with friends.”

Six outstanding buddy groups emerged as winners, each receiving $50 gift cards to be used for a memorable outing together. Safe Routes to Schools extends its heartfelt thanks to all the parents who contributed nominations and words of encouragement. For a dose of inspiration, you can explore these touching stories on our website at www.saferoutestoschools.org.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!

• Hidden Valley Elementary, ride bikes daily: Julia (4th grade), Milla (4th grade), Olivia (4th grade)
• Neil Cummins Elementary, walk daily: Henry (3rd grade), Eloise (3rd grade), Natalie (3rd grade)
• Rancho Elementary, ride daily: Amalia (1st grade), Theo, Sol, Alison, Isla, Karol (3rd grade), Wendy (4th grade), Abraham, Haden (5th grade)
• Kent Middle, ride daily: Mary (5th grade), Liv (5th grade), Simone (5th grade)
• Miller Creek Middle, ride daily: Nicholas (6th grade), Charlie (6th grade), James (6th grade), Sidney (6th grade), Jakob (6th grade)
• San Marin High School, carpool daily: Scottie-Marie (9th grade), Parker (9th grade), Gael (9th grade)

The Buddy Up Contest not only celebrates the spirit of togetherness but also recognizes the positive impact of shared commutes on our communities.

Sixth Grader’s Confidence Shines After Learning to Ride a Bike

“I was really nervous [about falling again],” Danella said, about attending the bike class. Safe Routes to Schools offers a class on bike handling, safety, and equipment to every Marin sixth grader as part of their physical education class. Students who are new to cycling can practice with an instructor in a “Learn to Ride” group at almost any bike class.

Safe Routes instructor Chris Allen took Danella aside to practice balancing, and then peddling, on a bike. It took Danella about two attempts with Chris keeping the bike steady before she started riding on her own. “I learned really fast,” she said happily.

“It makes what I do out here feel so great,” said Chris, who joined Safe Routes this year and is an experienced mountain and BMX rider. “I’ve never seen a happier kid in one of our bike rodeos.”

Danella described the many ways learning to ride has given her confidence. She said she is teaching her five-year-old cousin to ride and that she hopes Christmas this year will include a bike of her own. She is also thinking about riding to school instead of getting driven by her father. “I’m really happy about being able to ride,” she said.

Join thousands of students who walk, bike, scooter, ride the bus, and carpool to school. 

Traffic reduction is key to calmer, safer streets. This encourages more families to walk and bike to schools, further reducing traffic. You can help! 

Safe Routes to Schools has several fun activities planned throughout the school year to keep momentum going. Consider Buddying Up with friends and come to a welcome table to get a prize when Walk and Roll Wednesdays are celebrated once per month. The first Walk and Roll Wednesday welcome table is September 13. Mood changing pencils will be handed out to thank the walkers and rollers for doing their part to create safer streets and a healthier planet. 

BUDDY UP!
Contest is Back in Fall

The Safe Routes to Schools BUDDY UP! contest was a great hit last fall and will return again this year. Buddy Up! is a great way to start the year with friendship and fun on the way to school, and kids can also win valuable rewards by participating. If your students have a travel “buddy”, they are more likely to want to get up a little earlier to walk, bike, take the bus, or carpool to school together. Additionally, there is safety in numbers and groups are more easily seen by drivers. Best of all, friendships and memories are formed by walking and rolling with others.

Participation is easy. Starting now, parents can sign up their group of two or more students from neighboring families to travel to or from school. O Sign up using this Buddy Up Entry Form, and don’t forget to tell us how the students met, what they like about traveling together, and any compelling fun story we can share.

The contest runs until October 31. At the end of the contest Safe Routes to Schools will select five winning BUDDY UP! groups to receive $50 gift cards.

Here is one heartwarming quote from Michelle Wilcox, the mother of one of the Bacich students who won last year:

“This group of third graders has been riding to and from school and affectionately been nicknamed “The Peloton” by neighbors who witness their numbers swell as they pick up more and more friends along the way to Bacich. They’re always looking out for each other, on the road and at school. They love being in a large group because it makes it easy to maintain the habit of riding every day, even when one or two people can’t make it. There’s always someone (and more often lots of people) to ride with!”

Marin Schools to Celebrate Ruby Bridges Walk and Roll Day in November

For the first time, Safe Routes to Schools is rolling out Ruby Bridges Walk and Roll to School Day countywide on November 15. All 42 subscribing elementary schools are encouraged to participate in the event.

Safe Routes will provide its volunteers and school administrators with all publicity and supplies for this special event. Schools can include not only the walkers, but also those students who prefer to roll, take the bus, park and walk, or carpool.

Back in the 1950s, Ruby Bridges was a six-year old African American girl in Louisiana who was assigned to attend an all-white educational institution. She endured verbal abuse from bystanders during her daily walk to class, and most of her white classmates were pulled out of school after she started attending. Ruby and her parents persevered, and over time, the school was successfully desegregated. Now Ruby is a teacher dedicated to inspiring others.

Last year, Bayside Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy in Sausalito celebrated the achievements of Ruby Bridges by walking to campus. “Eight students from our middle school traveled to our elementary school to host the event. Heavy rain occurred on that day so we could not hold the session outdoors, but our students walked from classroom to classroom, promoting Ruby’s story and the Safe Routes mission,” said Phillip Logan, Community School Director with the Sausalito-Marin City School District.

According to AAA, last year 343,000 students from 1,400 schools around the United States took part in Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day.

Introducing Mira Schwirtz, Our New Volunteer Coordinator

As Safe Routes to Schools’ new Volunteer Coordinator, Mira is excited to join forces with dedicated parent volunteers at elementary schools all across Marin to make walking and rolling to school a healthy habit.

Mira brings a background in marketing writing and project management to Safe Routes to Schools. She has worked in communications and outreach with a number of nonprofit organizations including the University of San Francisco and the YMCA of the East Bay. She is especially appreciative of the opportunity Safe Routes to Schools provides to build stronger school communities.

A Marin Native and Novato resident, Mira loves to bike and walk around her community, often in company with Russ, her Australian Shepherd. She has two children who attend Novato schools, where she also volunteers. Her most memorable cycling adventure was spending two months touring South Africa with her husband.

Please drop Mira an email and introduce yourself or let her know if you have any questions or concerns: [email protected].

A Plea for E-bike Safety

As e-bikes and e-scooters have surged in popularity with students in Marin, so has public outcry over concerns for students’ safety. School administrators, city officials, and local law enforcement have been besieged by complaints about students traveling too fast, many without helmets, while swerving rapidly past cars and pedestrians on sidewalks not wide enough to handle them.

Two Marin communities have taken steps to mitigate unsafe behavior on hefty devices that allow children to travel at twice the speed students normally travel on non-motorized bikes or scooters.

The Ross School partnered with the Ross police department to develop a “Caught Being Kind” incentive program to award kindergarten through eighth grade students for good riding behavior. Ross law enforcement hands out Caught Being Kind cards for wearing helmets, riding slowly, and obeying the laws. The cards can be entered into a raffle drawing for ice cream, pizza, and other sought after gift cards. Ross teacher Ms. Caitlin Santin led her Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) students to create the safety campaign and a video to promote it.

In Mill Valley, where e-bikes are prevalent among the 600 middle and high school students that ride to school daily, Police Department Chief Rick Navarro is taking a different approach. After a year of outreach and education about wearing helmets and riding responsibly, the Mill Valley Police Department changed their local ordinance to give police authority to cite students for a diversion program, mandating that they attend a class taught by Safe Routes to Schools instructors. The teen class is part of Marin County Bicycle Coalitions’ E-Bike Smart Marin program and carries a $150 fee to attend. Twenty students will be attending the first class in Mill Valley on September 9.

Chief Navarro says, “Thank you again, for all that you are doing to allow students to be successful and safe. We in law enforcement truly appreciate the partnership.”

What Kind of E-bike is recommended?

“They are basically mini-motorcycles. I got hoodwinked into buying one.” – Anonymous parent of a teen about Class II e-bike

Marin Safe Routes to Schools strongly discourages parents from purchasing Class 2 throttle e-bikes for children under the age of 16.

Many popular manufacturers of Class 2 e-bikes also only recommend them for teens 16 and over. Several states have already outlawed Class 2 e-bikes for students under 16, and California legislation is currently debating if our state’s law should be revised as well. Currently California law states that Class I (pedal assist) and Class 2 e-bikes are legal for children of any age, while Class 3 (throttle assist bikes that travel up to 28 mph) have an age restriction of 16 years and above. For parent e-bike safety tips, read here.