Sponsoring and supporting the scheme for over five years, Countrystyle Recycling is proud to announce that children taking part in the KM Charity/ Inspire Schools’ green-travel scheme Active Wow achieved a stunning 640,000 car-free journeys this academic year, taking 304,000 vehicles off the road. The figures, announced during a celebratory event at Leeds Castle, represent a 30,000-journey increase on the previous year, mean Inspire Schools has now achieved more than seven million green-travel journeys in its 19-year history.
Active Wow encourages families to leave the car at home for the school run and make the journey by walking or cycling instead. Incentivised with monthly inter-school green travel challenges, the pupils with the highest number of walks were awarded with local leisure attraction vouchers or visits by celebrity storytellers. High-achieving Active Wow schools from Kent, Medway and Bexley were joined at the celebrations by representatives of business and local authorities supporting the scheme.
Marketing Executive Emily, who attended the event, commented “Every year green travel alternatives such Walk on Wednesday (WoW) is increasingly gaining the attention of pupils (and parents), all of whom are looking for greener alternatives to the normal school commute. WoW is a great initiative to get pupils engage in exercise, meet fellow peers and start the day on a good foot. It was a great event to celebrate the tremendous effort and really exciting for the children. We are proud to support such a significant initiative, Kent is at the heart of what we do and its great to see the positive impact it is having on the pupils”.
Maidstone Borough Council Cllr Derek Mortimer said: “It’s an exceptional campaign. We fully support it in Maidstone. We’re trying to get more people off the roads and keep people fitter, and we want to get more and more children walking to school.”
