Thurston County Public Health & Social Services works together with local partners to bring Safe Routes to School and related projects to schools throughout the county.  The goal of the project is to increase the physical activity among school-age children by encouraging, and educating about, walking and bicycling to school as well as  traffic safety.  This school year (2012-2013), thanks to a Community Transformation Grant, Lydia Hawk Elementary School will be holding Walk to School Day on October 3rd, 2012.  A partnership task force with Safe Kids Thurston County will focus on making environmental improvements over the next year that boost safety and encourage more kids and families to walk to school in that same Tanglewilde-Thompson Place neighborhood.

In 2010, the health department began to work on a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project to bring Safe Routes to School to two North Thurston Public School elementaries.  The project identified environmental and policy changes needed to support the increase of these active ways of getting to and from school.  Lacey Elementary School began its project in the fall of 2010 year and held assemblies and kick-off walk and bicycle to school days in spring and fall of 2011.  Mountain View Elementary also participated during the 2011-2012 school year.

TCPHSS works in partnership with Thurston Regional Planning Council, Intercity Transit and local school districts to implement the Healthy Kids / Safe Streets Action Plan. 

For more information about that effort, please contact TRPC at (360) 956-7575, or to visit their webpage for the project, Click Here...

For more national information about Walk to School Day, Click Here...

To find out more from the National Center for Safe Routes to School information, go to http://www.saferoutesinfo.org/