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Bethel Manor Elementary School (BMES) has received a $2,000 grant from Richmond-based nonprofit Prevention Connections to establish a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) walk at Bethel Manor Elementary School.

 

Bethel Manor students will participate in a kick-off assembly at 2:00 on Friday, March 11th in the school's cafetorium, to learn about the school's program: Walk to Live Well. During the assembly second grade students will perform songs about walking and exercising, the health benefits of walking will be shared, and incentives for walking to school will be communicated. Afterwards the entire student body will take a walk around the school to get the momentum started. During the week of March 14-18 teachers will be in the neighborhood encouraging students to walk.

 

Funded by Prevention Connections, the event will publicize the national Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program, which aims to increase physical activity among schoolchildren.

 

"We hope this will inspire other communities to participate in the Safe Routes to School program. The number of children who walk and bike to school has decreased by 73 percent over the last 40 years, and we need to turn that around," says Betsy Poulsen, Principal at Bethel Manor Elementary School (BMES). We currently have about 10 to 15% of our students who walk to school and we'd like to increase that number.

 

As of 2009, 13 percent of children ages 5 to 14 walked or bicycled to school, compared to 48 percent of students in 1969, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS).

 

The SRTS program is funded in Virginia by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and Prevention Connections.

 

VDOT's SRTS program assists localities and schools in the development of plans, activities and infrastructure improvements to make walking and bicycling to school a safe and appealing transportation option for students. Prevention Connections promotes the SRTS program by providing technical assistance and financial incentives for Title I schools to create safe walking and biking routes. Prevention Connections also helps schools connect with VDOT representatives. More information about Prevention Connections' SRTS mini-grants can be found at www.preventionconnections.org/funding.shtml.

 

Obesity remains the second leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States, behind tobacco use. More than 60 percent of Virginia adults are obese or overweight, and it is estimated that as many as one in three children in Virginia are also obese or overweight. Childhood obesity can lead to serious health problems once only seen in adults, including type II diabetes, heart disease and sleep apnea.

 

Earlier this year, the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth released the results of the first Virginia Childhood Obesity Survey, which found that at least one out of five young people in Virginia between the ages of 10 and 17 is obese or overweight. The highest percentages of childhood obesity were found in southwest Virginia, where nearly one in three children is obese or overweight. For more information about Safe Routes to School, please visit the National Center for Safe Routes to School at www.saferoutesinfo.org.

 

For more information, contact Betsy Poulsen, Principal, BMES, at (757) 867-7439. For information about Prevention Connections, contact Richard Foster at (804) 225-3947.