FEATURE
Our Children | Summer 2020
PHOTO: VAUGHN MERCHANT
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Membertou Elementary Walking School Bus.
Back to walking
As the pandemic has forced us to embrace at-home education, many look forward to the simple joys of walking to school again By Chris Benjamin
W
hen school returns one of my family’s favourite things will be resuming our daily walks. I can already hear the lilting “Welcome Baack” from the Welcome Back, Kotter theme song, which my wife blasts every year during the first walk to school. We’ll round up the troops—five fresh-faced Grade 3 students, a Grade 1 sister, parents, and two or three dogs—at Connelly and Edinburgh streets, and we’ll encounter other walking groups as we head to the Bayers Road crosswalk, kinetic energy crackling through the excited chatter. Some will whiz to the next intersection via scooter, others will roll via bicycle, and some will saunter casually. My wife and I will dance like the goofballs we are. It’s quite a crowd on the first day back, and something we miss dearly since social distancing kept us all home. During a normal fall, winter and spring, our street’s six kids, occasionally joined by a couple of tag-along friends, will be accompanied by one to three adults each morning: our Walking School Bus (WSB).
“For my son Thomas, it’s about starting the day with friends,” says parent Jennifer Cameron, a self-employed public relations consultant. “He looks forward to the walk, even though he’s shy.” For Cameron, the WSB, which started when her son entered Grade Primary, is a reassurance of safety, physical activity, and friendship for Thomas. His peers would be with him, familiar faces in a new environment, guided by a parent to help them navigate road traffic, and cars backing out of their driveways, blind to small children. “There’s no battle, no complaining or whining,” Cameron says. “He’s proud to be on the walking school bus.” Patrick Laroche, an IT professional, originally saw the WSB as a time saver. “Same advantage parents of kids with regular school buses have,” he says. Four days a week, he could see his son, Reid out the door and know he was cared for and safe. That’s still a significant benefit, but he has found many others. “Kids hanging out together, being kids. I enjoy it too, walking the
