Safe Routes to School Advocate Brings SuperCyclist Training to Arlington Area
It
takes a special person to achieve all that Sharon Canclini is working
to achieve for children’s health and safety. Through her
Community Nursing class at Texas Christian University (TCU), Sharon
helps nurses learn how to identify and meet community health
needs. This includes knowledge of how to teach bicycle safety to
children.
Sharon is also pursuing a Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grant for
complete sidewalks and other walking and bicycle infrastructure for the
school in her Arlington neighborhood, the Carol Holt Elementary School
(EL)
Carol Holt EL is a beautiful new (2007) school surrounded by
neighborhoods. Unfortunately, like too many new schools, planning
and construction failed to resolve barriers that prevent children from
safely walking or biking to school. There are narrow roads that
drop off into ditches. Private properties and fence-lines prevent
other avenues of access to the school. Children walking or
bicycling are forced to navigate rough shoulders and ditches.
Sharon says this situation is complicated by truck traffic to and from a gas exploration well near the school.
Sharon called TBC to arrange a Texas SuperCyclist Teacher Certification Training on April 11, 2008 for her nursing students, as
well as for teachers, public health professionals and other youth
workers in the area.
Attending the training with Sharon were Jim Fleck of Imogene Gideon EL
in Mansfield ISD, Camisha James-McCreadie of Beltline Intermediate in
Cedar Hill ISD, Heather Williams of West EL in White Settlement ISD,
Keisha Leatherman and Glenda Redeemer of the Tarrant County Public
Health, Dawn Samstag of Cub Scout Pack 276 at Carol Holt EL, and from
the TCU nursing program, Alesha Albert, Natalia Albright, Shannon
Antinone, Kathryn Armstrong, Carolina Barrera, Sherry Bryson, Megan
Connell, Avery Cowan, Margaret Dearden and Jessica Drake.
The mix gave an interesting perspective to the class, highlighting to
all of us how important it is that children be active to prevent
diabetes and obesity. The nursing students brought up the alarming
increase of asthma in children today. Bicycling is a solution to the
air pollution problem, which is a possible cause of this asthma
increase.
A popular game practiced during this training was a version created and presented to the group by
Susan Wagner of Texas A&M University at College Station and
longtime SuperCyclist instructor. “The Seven Laws” gets the students
to act out the laws using a simple physical action like charades. Each
group comes up with one charade for each law and eventually after
jogging, skipping and sliding around the room, everyone teaches
everyone else all of the laws actions.
Our thanks, Sharon, for bringing a SuperCyclist training to the
Arlington area, for your efforts toward a safe physical environment
around Carol Holt EL, and for your dedicated work toward health,
fitness and safety for children.
Sharon’s work addresses the “Education” and “Engineering” components of
the five “E’s” of the Safe Routes to School Movement. The others are
Encouragement, Enforcement and Evaluation. It takes a broad community
effort through all of these components to make Safe Routes to School
work for our children’s health and safety.
The Texas SuperCyclist Program is funded by a grant from the Texas
Department of Transportation (TxDOT). For Texas SuperCyclist downloadable bike safety education resource sheets on
topics such as proper helmet fitting for kids, click here.
TxDOT also administers SRTS funding from the Federal SAFETEA-LU
Transportation bill. For more information, click here.
TBC
