News
Walk & Roll a Success!! Winners Announced!!!
What
a great Green Week! April 22-24 was a power packed four days.
We kicked
it off with Earth Day where the green spirit of Roosevelt got
creative with Mecca coming to help students create beautiful artwork
pieces from recycled/re-used materials.
On Wednesday we had a a Green
Day filled with folks wearing Green and acting green by playing
BRINGs wheel of waste and buying starts from the Garden Club.
Thursday was our HUGE Turn Off Your TV Activity Day!! We had more than
25 activities with ALL students participating in one of them. We were
fly fishing, dancing, doing yoga, making baskets, beading, strumming
on the Ukulele, riding bikes and skateboards (of course!), tie dying,
playing ultimate frisbee, kickball, softball and oh so much more. It
was a bit crazy to organize but so well worth it, the reviews were great
and folks are excited to do it again! <br> Special thanks to all
the volunteers and organizations that came out to lend a hand to make
the event happen!
On Friday we had the Walk & Roll day where over a hundred students
were entered into a raffle for a new bike, skateboard, locks, lights,
and bells,!
The winners were:
Bike Lights- Finn V. and Nora E.
Bike Lock- Jake M.
Bike Bells- Jack O. and Zoki M.
New Helmet from Boardsports- Morgan P.
A New Skateboard from Boardsports- Alex L.
A New Raleigh Bicycle from Paul's Bicycle Way of Life- Kerry
B.
Congratulations to all the winners- that's everyone at Roosevelt who all benefit from more students making the choice to bike or walk to school!
Parent Surveys!
Parents, please print and fill out this survey and then turn it into the office. If you have the capacity to fill it out and email it you can do so to Shane's email.
We do these in the Fall and Spring to fulfill our SRTS grant but it also gives us a better understanding of where we should be focusing our time and efforts.
Click on the English or Spanish Survey to download the pdf file
Race the Parents, Surveys, Kidical Mass AND Green Week!!
April 18th will be a big night for the SRTS crew and the whole month is filled with Fun!
We'll be at Showcase collecting data through our Parent Surveys
and spreading the news about Green Week, but the real fun will be the
Race The Parents event where we'll see who can pedal
the most miles during showcase... the parents or the kids?!
You can also fill out a parent survey right HERE
o si quieres se puede encrontrarlo AQUI!
Then email it to Shane or drop it off in the office.
We'll also be present for the first ever Kidical Mass.
It's a family fun ride that encourages families to get out and ride
together and it always ends at a fun spot (like Prince Pücklers this
time). It happens on the third Friday of every month. This month it's
April 18th and we are meeting at Monroe Park. We're having our first
one but it's already catching on with rides in Bend, Ashland, Portland,
and Tulsa planned! More info at kidicalmass.org.
April 22nd-25th is Green Week. Here's the schedule for that amazing
week!!
Earth Day (Tuesday)
11:45-1:45 Join us in the commons area for information and activities from Mecca, LTD, and different class presentations.
Green Day (Wednesday)
Be green... literally; wear green today!
11:45-1:45 Join us in the commons area for information and activities from BRING (& their “Wheel of Waste”), the Green Team, the garden club, and more.
Activity Day (Turn off your TV Day) (Thursday)
2-3:15 A special “unplugged” day to show some alternative activities to screen time.
We’ll have a bicycle obstacle course, a walk in the park, a skateboard clinic, lego building, crafts, Yoga, gardening, hip-hop dance, sports, and more (26 activities in all!!).
Walk & Roll Day! (Friday)
8:00-9:00 am- Bike Phantom(s) will be giving prizes and raffle cards out to bikers, walkers, and transit users! We’ll have even bigger prizes this week!
Free Quesadillas! The Bike Phantoms sidekick, The WonderWalker, will be making up quesadillas for breakfast for all those using the Preferred Parking lot at the Amazon Community Center. Change your drop off spot and grab un desayuno sabrosito.
11:45-1:45 Continuing the food theme the Bike Phantom will
be rockin’ out and blending up fresh Bike Blended Smoothies
for lunch! Come pedal up some perfect punch or just sip
some zumo sabroso. We’ll also have a helmet fitting table
with low cost helmets and folks sharing information with us.
Bike Phantom on TV
KEZI 9 did a news story this week on the Safe Routes to School program and the $1.2 million in ODOT funding that Oregon schools receieved. In Eugene besides Roosevelt, Monroe, Edison, and Thurston also received funding for this year for SRTS projects. Because of the grant here at Roosevelt a new Eugene SRTS Team has been formed to help spread the SRTS program to even more schools in the 4J and Bethel Districts. Here is a link to the story that appeared on KEZI: http://www.kezi.com/article.aspx?id=20744
New Display and Other News
Patricia, the parent volunteer responsible for the display cases around Roosevelt is working on the Commons area display which will include a Biking/Walking
theme!
The winners for the February Bike Phantom Raffle were Cassie Hwa, Rhodec Erickson, James Butler and Genevieve Brandt.
They won gift certificates totaling $85 to House of Records, Paul's Bicycle Way of Life, Creative Hands, and Smith Family Bookstore. Way to go!
Remember Roosevelt, the more you Walk & Roll to school the more likely it is you'll see the Phantom and be able to enter the raffle!
Mark your calendars! April 22-25th is Walk & Roll Week. We'll be
celebrating this human powered festival along with Earth Day and Turn
off Your TV Week. There will be special activities and tables in the
commons area during lunch time all week. We'll have Safe Routes to School
with the Bike Blender as well as BRING, Mecca, LTD, special class presentations,
and more! There will also be special prizes that week for those who
Walk & Roll to school (even bigger than the normal Bike Phantom
prizes)!
Walking and Biking Summit a Success
There was a great turnout for the City of Eugene's Walk & Bike Summit held
on Saturday, January 26th. After an opening presentation, which included
a speech from Mayor Kitty Piercy, there were three breakout sessions including
a "Share the Roads" campaign, a signature bike event discussion, and
a "Safe Routes to School" group. There was a great discussion about different
approaches and ideas for which direction to take with the local SRTS
momentum. It was exciting to have a big group of people interested in
seeing the growth of the program and willing to put in the time and
effort to make it happen. We are now working to organize an SRTS Action
Committee that will create a plan for how to create, sustain, and spread
an SRTS program in the area.
If you would like to get involved either at Roosevelt, with another school, or at the City level contact Shane Rhodes the SRTS Program Manager here at Roosevelt (email below)
More Phantom Prizes Given Out
The prizes keep rolling out the door as the Bike Phantom continues to pedal around and peddle the idea of getting to school in a more sustainable and healthy way. Congratulations go out to Nate Emerson-Roberts, Keziah Jackson, and Sean Valente who won Gift Certificates from Regal Cinemas and Eugene Toy & Hobby. Watch for the Phantom giving out prizes and raffle tickets to Bikers the first week of February, Walkers the second week, Bus riders and Preferred parking walkers the third week, and then Bikers again the last week! That's TWO chances this month for bikers so as the weather starts to improve get those wheels spinning and roll anyway you can (skateboarders and scooters too!) to Roosevelt this month.
Congratulations to the first Bike Phantom Raffle Prize Winner!
The first raffle drawing for the Bike Phantom prizes happened today and Jesse Ponedel is the winner of a $20 gift certificate to Smith Family Bookstores . Congratulations! A reminder to everyone who received Phantom Cards this week for biking to school: turn them into the main office or the SRTS office in D Hall. We'll have another drawing next week with a chance to win one of TWO prizes. Also next week we'll be giving cards out to bus riders and those who park in the alternate parking lots at Amazon Recreation or the tennis court lot at 24th and Amazon. Keep Walkin' and Rollin'!
The Bike Phantom Rolls!
A caped crusader has been spotted around Roosevelt in the past week. He’s swooping by on his two-wheeled machine rocking to tunes and handing out special prizes. He’s the Bike Phantom and he’s giving out those prizes to students he spots walking and biking to school! Besides giving out stickers, blinky lights, and reflectors he’s also giving out cards that can be turned in so that you’re entered into a drawing for gift certificates to great stores like Smith Family Bookstore, CD Game Exchange, House of Records, The Beanery, and more! So before you climb into the car to come to school think about getting here under your own super power- Human Power! Bike, skateboard, scooter, blade, or walk to school and win some great rewards: physical fitness, freedom, fresh air, and maybe a fabulous prize.
The Phantom will also be giving out prizes to students who ride the bus and to those whose parents drop them off in one of the alternative lots (Amazon Park Pool or the tennis court lot at 24th & Amazon Parkway).
So keep your eyes peeled for the Bike Phantom and turn your cards into the main office or to the Safe Routes to School office (in D Hall, office hours are Tuesday-Friday 11:30-3:30 or anytime you seen Shane there).
Parent Surveys
The Oregon Safe Routes to School Program awarded a grant to RMS this year to address pedestrian and biking safety issues at RMS, and other south Eugene schools, and to encourage the use of alternative transportation whenever feasible. As a recipient of a 2007-2008 Safe Routes to School Grant, we are required to have parents complete a survey now and in the spring of 2008. We sincerely appreciate your time in completing the survey. The results will help to guide our efforts. Complete the survey and this form and your student’s name will be entered in a raffle to win a new bike lock. Please return completed forms by December 14 to the RMS Main Office or you may scan the completed survey and return it as an attachment to: rhodes_sh@4j.lane.edu Thank you for your time.
RMS Welcomes New Safe Routes to School Program Manager
There’s a new pedaler on campus! Roosevelt is delighted to welcome Shane Rhodes as our new Safe Routes to School Program manager, whose position was made possible by an Oregon Safe Routes to School grant. Shane will be addressing bike and walk encouragement and safety issues during the 2007-2008 academic year. Shane is returning to his hometown of Eugene after years of exploring Spain, the Bay Area of California, and the entire country. He just finished a year of circling the United States by bicycle and will now help to get Roosevelt families circling their neighborhoods and getting to school by biking, walking, or rolling in some form other than in their cars. Watch for some fun and exciting programs coming up to help get more folks walkin’ and rollin’ to school! A special thanks goes out to the parents, volunteers, and staff who worked so hard to make this position possible! Extra special appreciation goes to Terry Brooks, committee chair.
Oregon supports RMS Safe Routes to School Program
Roosevelt Middle School submitted a grant proposal for a model program to the Oregon Safe Routes to School program, part of a national program to encourage walking and cycling to school. The proposal has been approved for funding. Hooray! Now the hard part begins. In addition to encouraging safe walking and cycling at RMS, our project will serve as a model and will reach out to RMS feeder schools.
National Walk and Ride Day a Big Success
Turnout was great for National Walk and Bike to School day, October 3, 2007, despite a typical Oregon morning drizzle. RMS students and faculty were joined by local celebrities (who's that odd duck in the green vest?). 25 bikers and 37 student walkers met at the south end of the Amazon Pool parking lot, then cycled or strolled to the back entrance of Roosevelt. Overall, 68 cyclists and 163 walkers (1/3 of all RMS students) participated.
Thanks!
A big Thank You to the students, parents, & teacher volunteers who made this a successful event. Morley and Juan have been very supportive of our work to make RMS safer for bikers & walkers. The new Green Team built RMS student awareness with the wonderful signs they created. Morgan Christensen, Daven Tubb, & Michal Young rode with the bikers; Larry Fickensher, Sami Abbit, Matt Thom, Mary Crabaugh, Colette Richardson, Pam Morgan, Joy Marshall, & Morley Hegstrom escorted the walkers. Barry McKenzie took pictures. Terry Brooks, Kathleen Brandt, Cynthia Wenks, Katie Swensen, Rebecca Kovach, Heather Brauer, Cary Hancock, & Laura Gordon directed students and distributed raffle tickets.
And Even More Thanks!
Special thanks to Morgan Christensen for selecting fabulous biking supplies like including locks, headlights, and flashing lights donated by Collins Cycle Shop. Kathleen Brandt gathered cool biking gear like helmets, headlights, bells, horns, and a red BMX bike thanks to generous donations by LTD’s Smart Ways to School Program and Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life.
Resources
Maps
We've made a custom map of some routes we like for walking and cycling to RMS.
Walking and cycling around the world
It's not just us — aware and engaged students all around the world are participating in International Walk to School Month.
LTD Smart Ways to School
Lane Transit District is an important partner in making appropriate transportation options available to everyone, including those for whom walking or cycling is not a realistic option. The LTD Smart Ways to School program provides a service to help families form car pools as well as information on other smart and safe travel options.
How walkable? How rideable?
The Robert Wood Johnson foundation provides materials for assessing walkability.
NCSRTS Resources
The National Center for Safe Routes to School provides a resource library including reports, marketing and promotional materials, engineering guides, and forms for SRTS programs.
Thanks
Thanks to all the parent volunteers who make the SRTS program at Roosevelt possible by putting a lot of energy and work into it. A special thanks to Terry Brooks for all of her hard work on the Oregon Safe Routes to School grant that brought the current projects here!
Thanks to everyone who took the parent survey in spring 2007. Your participation was important for understanding the transportation situation at Roosevelt, and it was essential for preparation of our grant proposal, which was funded by the State of Oregon.
Thanks also to all who participated in the October 2007 walk and ride event. It was particularly heartening to see a good turnout on a typical rainy Oregon morning.