FREMONT — Oliveira Elementary School has won the 2018 Golden Sneaker Contest, which encourages kids to use environmentally friendly and healthy ways to get to school.
Of the 94 participating schools in Alameda County, Oliveira students “achieved the highest percent increase of students walking, cycling, skating, taking transit or using shared rides to get to school” during this year’s contest, according to the Alameda County Transportation Commission.
About 47 percent of students get to the Fremont in “green” ways on a typical day, but the commission said during the contest from Feb. 26 to March 9, 66 percent of participating students made such trips, earning the school the Platinum Sneaker award. Oliveira representatives received the award during a ceremony at an April Alameda County Transportation Commission meeting.
More than 65,000 elementary and middle school students throughout Alameda County participated in the 2018 Golden Sneaker Contest, logging their trips to school in each classroom.
The classroom that saw the greatest percentage of green trips at each school received a Golden Sneaker Trophy, the commission said in a statement.
The school district and the city of Fremont have been working to create a comprehensive update to each school’s best routes for walking and biking, and plan to make some safety improvements to the routes as well.
The Golden Sneaker Contest and Platinum Sneaker award are sponsored by Alameda County’s Safe Routes to Schools Program, funded by the transportation commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
Oliveira has participated in the Safe Routes to Schools program since the 2012-13 school year, and has “Walking Wednesdays.”
“We close down our school’s drop-off and pickup zone, so parents must make alternative arrangements to get their children to and from school,” Oliveira Principal Ian Squibb said in a statement.
“This has greatly decreased traffic and the stress level of students,” he said.