Heatherwood Elementary Wins National Contest

BY JILL WILLIAMS AND AMY THOMPSON
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Heatherwood won first place, nationwide, in the Clorox Green Works Walk to School Challenge.

This contest, sponsored by Clorox Green Works, the Sierra Club, and Safe Routes to School, challenged elementary and middle schools across the nation to earn points by documenting their walking time during October.

Third grader Devynn Holly was the winner of a bike raffle during the school's Walk and Roll event.  Photo by Jill Williams.

Heatherwood’s walkers included 138 families, including 200 parents and 234 children, who walked a total of 119,100 minutes, or about 5,270 miles - the distance from Los Angeles to New York and back.
For that effort, Heatherwood will be awarded a $5,000 green grant.

Although Heatherwood is smaller than many of the top competitors, and is in a relatively small community, the school has a head start because of the Walk and Roll program launched two years ago at the school by a group of parents and volunteers.

Walk and Roll was founded when some parents noticed that although most students at Heatherwood live within two miles of the school, few students walked or rode bikes to school. At about the same time, an initiative was launched by the Presidential Active Lifestyle Program, which supports putting an end to childhood obesity.

Parent volunteers started organizing crossing guards on 75th Street, and now there is construction underway on a pedestrian crossing zone on 75th Street,  funded by Safe Routes to School.

Heatherwood also developed a program to acknowledge students who have walked or biked 5, 30, and 100 days to school. Each fall and spring of the last two years, the school has sponsored a Walk and Roll Week where families were greeted with healthy snacks each morning for walking and biking to school.

Although Heatherwood has made great strides, there is still much room for growth in the program. Plans include organizing a community bike swap to get affordable bikes in the hands of students who might otherwise not be able to afford them.

The committee also is looking at ways to distribute more safety equipment, including helmets and bike lights.

Volunteers are looking at ways to organize more walking and biking groups, so kids whose parents can’t ride or walk with them could partner with other kids and parents to commute together.

For more information on Heatherwood’s Walk and Roll program, contact Amy Thompson at 303-581-0512 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .