Kāpiti Coast District Council Road Safety Coordinator Bruce Johnston (left), Moannata Tebou (centre); Greater Wellington Councillor Penny Gaylor (Right).
Greater Wellington Councillor Penny Gaylor and Kāpiti Coast District Council Road Safety Coordinator Bruce Johnston visited Kapakapanui School last week to present Movin’March WOW Passport winner Moannata Tebou with a $400 MYRIDE voucher.
Also winning a $400 voucher for the Kāpiti area was Grayson from Raumati Beach School.
As well as scooping district and regional art challenge wins, Paraparaumu Beach School recorded the highest number of trips for Kāpiti with a total of 4221 walk and wheel trips over March. That’s equivalent to 6.5 trips per student.
Normally a month-long event run by Greater Wellington Regional Council in partnership with local councils, this year’s Movin’March was cut to three weeks because of COVID-19, but still encouraged large numbers of kids in the region to walk, cycle and scoot to school.
Cr Gaylor says the kids of Kāpiti showed their usual get-up and go with strong participation leading to great awareness of road safety and the importance of active transport.
Kirsty Barr, Travel Choice Coordinator at Greater Wellington said participation and feedback from this year’s Movin’March has been fantastic despite COVID-19.
“Congratulations to Kapakapanui School, which recorded 1197 walk and wheel trips over March, that’s equivalent to two trips per student and, overall, the equivalent of walking from Waikanae to Wellington 10 times.
“Ka pai Kāpiti schools. This year we had 129 schools in the region participate, which means we have almost 37,000 Year 0-8 students potentially participating in this fantastic free event. We counted nearly 89,000 walk or wheel trips throughout the region over March, which is only slightly fewer than last year, but over a shorter time period so we’re really happy with that result.
“Our goal now is to see how we can support schools in maintaining that enthusiasm throughout the year.”
Kirsty says a great start was that schools have begun to reap the benefits of more engagement with family and whānau, with greater interaction leading to enthusiastic support for Movin’March.
“The more kids we can get involved, the better. The physical and mental benefits of active transport for a generation that will live with climate change are immeasurable.”
