With a helmet matching his lime-green scooter, King Street School kindergartner Jack Hansbury zips to school faster than most walkers on Friday, Oct. 4. He’s followed by his brother Connor, 3, who joined the trip from their Alden Terrace home to celebrate International Walk to School Day, an annual event that encourages awareness of walking safety.
Coming from their home on King Street, first-grader Chelsea Pereira walks to school hand in hand with her mother Michelle.
Bundled up in warm jackets, Charlotte Membreno (left), Gianlorenzo Ochoa and Sloane Shillingford, kindergartners in Alejandra Naselli’s class, stand on the curb and wait for the ceremony to begin.
To celebrate how schools in 40 different countries participate in Walk to School Day, kindergarten teacher Fatima Barnett and event chairman William Villanova teach students a modified “Ka Ora” battle dance from New Zealand.
Kindergartner Emma Neza steps out of the crowd to roar like a King Street lion during the “Ka Ora” chant and dance.
After their grand entrance in a Port Chester police car, the Port Chester High School mascot Rammy (played by high school junior Gianna Villanova) and King Street School mascot Roary (played by Port Chester Middle School seventh-grader John Pauletti) jump out and greet the eager crowd of students.
Kindergartners Sofia Mojica (right) and Julian Restrepo hold hands with their teacher Lindsay Renda as they stroll around the new parking lot. A communal walk following the ceremony is a Walk to School Day tradition.
Port Chester Mayor Richard “Fritz” Falanka chats with a few King Street School students as they walk around the parking lot after the Walk to School Day ceremony.
