TWENTY IS THE RULE NEAR THE SCHOOL

Dane made up the above logo after working really hard to come up with "Drive Twenty-Five - Keep Kids Alive!" which was a good idea, if, um, a bit inaccurate for a school zone.

Walker Elementary won a "Safe Routes To School" grant this year - the only school in the district to snag the grant, thanks to their four years of "Walker Wednesdays." (Kids get to enter drawings for prizes when they walk, bike, or take the bus on Walker Wednesdays.)

Since we walk or bike to school every day, I responded to the coordinator's email and said we'd be happy to make signs over the weekend and help out before school.


So the kids made these signs on Sunday and we walked to school an hour early last Monday. At the corner of Iowa (our street) and Walker (the school's street) we stood with Officer Steve, recording speeds and license plates and vehicle makes and driver gender. Officer Steve would then be mailing those folks notices that they were speeding and the next offense would be a big fat ticket.


While we were out there, a couple drivers got clocked speeding TWICE that morning and a couple drivers had been clocked speeding the week before! (In a school zone, for crying out loud!)

Officer Steve and the other coordinators said that drivers slow down for a couple weeks after speed traps like that - especially if they haven't had speed traps in the zone for a long time.

I'm still trying to figuring out if two weeks is considered successful, or a crying shame... Whatever the case, remember

TWENTY IS THE RULE
NEAR THE SCHOOL

and if you obey that law, we'll say:

WAY TO GO!
KEEP IT SLOW!

HAPPY DOG WALKERS

Walker's Walkers Recognized

(You can imagine the restraint it took to not write 'Wecognized' up there.) So here you have it, folks, all the walking I gushed about in the post below is officially validated on the front page of the October 8, 2008, edition of the Ashland Tidings.

Yup, Aubrey made the paper again, and I got in there, too. Yesterday was National Walk or Bike to School Day, so the press was on hand to get the low-down. Aubrey and I are not interviewed in the article, just photographed. She's the one wearing her handmade variegated scarf, I'm the one with the cat around my neck.

The caption: Students and parents visit the snack and prize table this morning at Walker Elementary School after taking part in International Walk to School Day.

Go here to read the article.