Last month, the City of Portland awarded two fifth-grade classes at Lewis Elementary a special Golden Sneaker Award. The award came after the kids showed outstanding achievement in the City’s pilot walk and bike to school program.

These energetic kids logged over 5,000 miles of walking and biking over the past year. They did this by taking walking field trips (instead of taking the bus) and biking and walking to school.

The program is part of the City of Portland’s comprehensive Safe Routes to School program that is administered by several community partners including the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and the Alliance for Community Traffic Safety.

Representatives from both groups were on hand along with teachers Mrs. Keefer and Mrs. Gould. Lewis Elementary School principal Tim Lauer was very proud of the kids and said he plans to prominently display the Golden Sneaker and hopes it inspires more kids at the school to walk and bike.

According to Lauer the school saw a significant increase in the number of kids walking and biking to school this year because of the Safe Routes to School program. “The program’s encouragement activities,” said Lauer, “served as motivating exercises to increase walking and biking to school at Lewis.”

Congratulations are due to all the kids and Safe Routes to School staff that worked so hard on this program. Next year the goal should be to walk and bike around the world!

Here are more photos of Lewis Elementary and their Golden Sneaker Award.