McCall Students to Walk to School on Wednesday

Don't be alarmed if you're on the road Wednesday morning and there are a number of middle school students walking or riding around the Town Common.

With Wednesday being the National Walk to School Day, the McCall Parent's Association signed up to join a number of other schools across New England and the country that will be walking or rolling to school.

The idea is to get cars off the road, eliminate traffic congestion and make Winchester a greener environment.

"We're going to have students walk to school instead of ride," said Sergeant in Charge of Safety Thomas Groux. "It's also an effort to be more conscious about the environment."

At 7:15 a.m. Wednesday morning, McCall students will come together at the Common and walk along Main Street to the school. When the McCall Parent's Association heard of the idea, they became very interested in being one of the more than 3,000 schools that will be participating.

"Because of the unique issues that effect McCall with Lincoln being right across the street, it's a chaotic place to drop-off your kids," said Deborah Digate, the Traffic Safety Representative for the Parent's Association. "We're looking at bringing more awareness to McCall and get more kids to walk or ride their bike. And hopefully we'll get more kids off the road."

There is also a potential financial gain the town, specifically McCall, could receive. Since this is a federal program, each year the Safe Routes to School organization selects one school and awards it a grant. Last year, Northampton received $800,000 from the government to improve the infrastructure around the school.

Possible improvements could include raised crosswalks, improved signage or better crossing lights.

However, McCall will have to be in the program for at least one year before it can be awarded any grants. And, according to Digate, even if more than one Winchester school participates in the event, only one school can receive the money.

But it's something that Groux acknowledges will be difficult to accomplish, but could be worthwhile.

"This money's not guaranteed, but we might as well try to get people walking to school," Groux said. "But it's going to be tough. A lot of these parents drop-off their kids and then rush to work, it's going to be a challenge to change that culture."

And with more students walking on the streets Wednesday morning, Groux and the Winchester Police Department will be well-prepared for the influx of walkers or riders.

There will be extra crossing guard, officers and another cruiser to make sure the middle school students get to school safely. Parents will also be there to accompany the students to school.

"We're encouraging people to walk to intersections that have crossing guards or pedestrian lights," Groux said. "This has been something that's been in Winchester a long time, so we're not reinventing the wheel here. We're just trying to encourage people to get back to walking to school."

The hope is that in the future more students will be walking to school, which will cut down on the traffic that has been steadily increasing each year.

"We're still in the very early stages of this program," Digate said. "But it's something that's necessary because Winchester has become a cut-through for many commuters. They just cut through the town to get where they're going. This is something we can do and we need to do."