Safe Routes sees students to school
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FAIRMONT-- Safe Routes to School is having a successful start to the fall season. The program, which is done locally through Fairmont Early Risers Kiwanis and Fairmont Community Education and Recreation, has a few dozen students participating.
Kiwanis member Mike Katzenmeyer handles the route that starts near the Fairmont Aquatic Park and ends at St. John Vianney. It's one of four routes that also lead to Fairmont Elementary School and St. Paul Lutheran School.
Katzenmeyer shared that the Early Risers Kiwanis have been doing Safe Routes to School for at least 15 years.
"It started with Joe Burns," he said.
He went on to say that Burns had applied for a grant to get the program started and the goal was to get kids to be more active.
"It was a time when they were getting sedentary. It was also to help alleviate the pressure on the elementary and middle schools because of the traffic," Katzenmeyer explained.
Since then, each year several Kiwanis members have volunteered as chaperones to walk with children safely to school. The program is done once in the fall and once in the spring. It's done on Tuesday mornings a few weeks each season and the times the routes leave vary depending on how far they are from the schools.
"The route (I'm on) is the best-attended. We have between 20 and 30 kids. Parents drop them off and we walk to St. John Vianney," Katzenmeyer said.
Kiwanis member Wayne Brummond is also on that route, along with SJV Principal, Sarah Striemer.
"We try to have two (Kiwanis members) on each route. On this one we have the principal. She's great," Katzenmeyer said.
Striemer shared that SJV has students on the route grades preschool through 6th grade, which is representative of their whole student body. She herself has been walking the route for a few years.
"The parents know I'm walking with them so the kids get excited to walk with their principal and the Kiwanis volunteers. They have a ton of fun and we really talk it up at school," Striemer said.
At school Striemer said they talk about the benefits of getting exercise right away in the morning so that the students can focus better.
"We see a difference in our kids when the walk in the morning. When they get into the classroom they're ready to sit down and get going. It's a great way to start the day," Striemer said.
Safe Routes to School will go through the third Tuesday of October. For information on routes go to fairmont.k12.mn.us and click on the CER tab.