Thousands take to Glendale streets for International Walk to School Day
Nearly 20,000 local students, parents, teachers and volunteers walked to school Wednesday as part of the pedestrian safety initiative, international walk-to-school day.
Roughly 30 schools in Glendale and La Crescenta participated in the event, which promotes physical activity and student health, teaches safe walking skills to kids and reminds adults to drive safely in school zones.
The annual program also helps reduce traffic congestion and pollution, and encourages drivers to slow down near schools, organizers said.
Students who walked to Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in La Crescenta were joined by the school’s lion mascot, along with police and fire officials.
PHOTOS: Thousands take part in International Walk to School Day
Parent Kara Sergile started a local walk-to-school initiative seven years ago after a sixth-grader was fatally struck by a car in a crosswalk in front of Toll Middle School during the morning drop-off.
“I was already agitated about what I saw happening around our school every morning,” said Sergile, a nurse who at the time had a first-grader at R.D. White Elementary school and another child in preschool. “When I heard about little girl getting killed, that was it.”
So in 2009, she organized a walk-to-school day at her then-first-grader’s elementary school.
Other schools in the district got involved the following year, and in 2011, it became a citywide event, she said.
“It’s just grown every year,” she said. “It really has been embraced by the community.”