To help keep you motivated to use active transportation all year long, we have created an event calendar that highlights specific holidays, events and activities that you can participate in with fellow community members and stay active together!
We are always adding new events, so check back often!
Got room on your fridge? A printable version of the calendar is also available.
Bike to School Week is the kick-off event to Bike Month, May 27 – June 30, a healthy active living initiative. Students are encouraged to use active forms of transportation such as riding bikes or scooters and walking or rolling to school or bus stops.
Schools that register their activities for Bike to School Week are eligible to win prizes!
New to this year, the City of Burlington and the Town of Oakville will be raffling off outdoor bike pumps to schools that are participating in the event, so be sure to register!
Share your school’s Bike to School Week efforts on Twitter using the hashtags: #biketoschoolHCDSB #biketoschool #EMCHalton
For more information, follow @EMCHalton @HCDSB_eco @EcoSchoolsHDSB on Twitter!
Our website Every Metre Counts is officially launching in October as part of International Walk to School Month activities.
Every Metre Counts is an online hub to find info to help you walk or roll to school or the bus stop. While the site is mainly geared to the school community, anyone who wants to stay active can check it out and get moving.
Click on the walk and roll map, find your school name to see if it will take you approximately 0 to 5, 5 to 10, 10 to 20 or 20 to 30-minutes to walk to your school.
Yes, it will. While there are many reasons for parents and kids to walk and roll together, there is also a friendly competition between school boards and individual schools. And, since the information you enter is available in real time, you can see your impact right away!
Use our new Trip Counter app to calculate your trip to school in metres. Once you’ve done that, you can see:
Check out the site’s calendar which highlights upcoming active activities.
November’s activity is to organize an Anti-Idling Campaign. If you’re in Burlington and need resources for your campaign, including posters, bookmarks, stickers or to borrow a large outdoor banner that can be attached to a fence on school property to remind drivers to turn off their engines, contact environment@burlington.ca.
Take action, Halton! Let’s encourage our youth to walk or roll to school for their health and our environment. Collectively, we can make a difference.
Credit: Take Action Burlington – Link here
Pick one or two days a week to promote active transportation to and from school (walking, biking, rolling, etc.) to students. Some ideas include:
School staff are encouraged to keep track of the total number of metres walked to school and enter it into our new Trip Counter app! This information is then displayed in a variety of ways, including by school and board comparisons.
Create a Kilometre Club at your school where students can get together during recess or lunch and walk or jog around the school yard.
Each week, total the kilometres completed by all participating classes for the school total.
Create distance goals to get students excited about staying active. Some popular distance goals include:
One way schools can encourage participation (and add some friendly competition!) is by making a “Golden Shoe Award” out of an old sneaker that is spray-painted gold. This prestigious award can go to the class with the highest percentage of students who use active transportation to get to school, the class that reached their distance goal first, etc.
We would love to hear about how your school encourages active transportation! Share your story and photos with us by email everymetrecounts@gmail.com or Twitter @EMCHalton.
Thank you Halton students for helping to make Bike to School Week 2018 so successful!
Bike to School Week began on May 28, and ended on June 1, 2018. An estimated 550 schools participated by biking, walking, and rolling to and from school across Ontario!
Schools were encouraged to host their own Bike to School Week activities.
St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School
Students at St. Thomas Aquinas CSS were encouraged through daily announcements over a 2 week period to participate in Bike to School Week. The school generously provided a bike to be raffled off to participants at the end of the week!
Members of the St. Thomas Aquinas CSS environment group the STA GreenRaiders were posted outside of the school each morning during Bike to School Week to give raffle tickets to those students who cycled, walked, and skateboarded to school. As the week progressed, St. Thomas Aquinas noted that they seen an increase in the number of students finding an alternative method of transport to school!
Sarah (pictured below) was the big winner of the new bike! Approximately 70 students participated throughout Bike to School Week at St. Thomas Aquinas CSS.
We would love to hear about any Bike to School Week activities your school participated in! Please send your event details and photos to everymetrecounts@gmail.com.
All schools who reported their Bike to School Week activities across Halton were entered into a random prize draw.
Congratulations to St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Elementary School (pictured below) for winning a $200 Mountain Equipment Co-op gift card!
Congratulations to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Secondary School for winning a school-day trip to Try the Track at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ontario!
Read about how one Halton parent thinks it is important to let her kids walk to school on HaltonParents blog.
