Popular local mascot ready to join Brightkidz and school children to help promote ‘Walk to School Week’

For Walk to School Week Brightkidz have rallied support from another social enterprise, Wicksteed Park, which is local to the Brightkidz Northamptonshire base. Their much-loved mascot, Wicky Bear, will be joining Brightkidz and local pupils as part of this national initiative to get more kids walking to school.

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Wicky-Bear-ready-to-walk

Ditch the car and walk to school – is the message from us here at Brightkidz to local parents and schools ahead of UK-wide ‘Walk to School Week’, 20-24 May.

As part of the planned week-long celebrations, Wicky will meet up and walk with groups of parents and pupils at two of the local schools working with Brightkidz on the ST:EPS project (Safe Travel: Enabling Pupils and Schools) – Compass Primary Academy on Tuesday 21 st May and Grange Primary Academy on Friday 24 th May.

Brightkidz founder, Alison Holland said: “Children used to walk to school all the time years ago, but nowadays we are far more reliant on our cars. We’ve been working with Kettering schools through our Brightkidz ST:EPS project, to enable them to promote active travel and healthy living all year round. We’re delighted that Compass and Grange primary schools are using the opportunity to hook into national Walk to School Week, so that we can really shout about why families should ditch the car. What a wonderful surprise it will be when the children are greeted by their favourite local character on their walk to school too.

Having Wicky will add even more fun and help us push the message – that walking to school makes kids more active and helps them develop independence and road safety skills. It’s also a great opportunity for two Kettering social enterprises to collaborate together for the benefit of local people.”

Rachel James, head of sales and marketing at Wicksteed Park, added: “The park was founded by Charles Wicksteed as part of his vision to encourage families to lead healthy, active lives, so we share a lot of the same values as Brightkidz.

“We are delighted to be supporting them during Walk to School Week and hope the fact that Wicky Bear is taking part encourages children to join in and be more active.”

Walk to School Week is run by UK charity, Living Streets. For more information on ST:EPS and how to get involved, or to sign up to our e-newsletter.