Every day during the school term in Queensland thousands of kids and their parents travel from home to school in the morning, and make the return trip in the afternoon.
A lot of children living close to school walk, with those living further away travelling mainly by bus or car.
The school journey affects public transport patterns, causes localised congestion around schools and contributes to the increased road traffic peak around 8.30am - 9.00am each morning.
Over the past 15 - 20 years the proportion of children travelling to school by car has almost doubled, yet many of the children live close enough to school to walk or cycle.
However many kids would like to cycle, but are either worried about safety or their school may lack safe secured cycling storage facilities.
FIT2BKIDS program is about bringing change in home to school travel patterns to allow more children to take regular exercise plus also cut traffic congestion and pollution.
R U Commuting is proud to announce Matt Poole - Nutri-Grain Ironman and Julie Barnett - World and Australian Sprint cycling Champion as Ambassadors of the FIT2BKIDS Active Travel School Program.
Registered schools in the FIT2BKIDS Program will have the chance to have a cycle skills session and also have Matt and Julie come to their school for a presentation about the importance of keeping healthy and active.
MATT POOLE
"Kids walk, ride or scoot to school and get active for a happy healthy lifestyle".
Matt Poole is a current Nutri Grain Ironman.
He recently came second overall in the 2010/11 series and was also recently awarded the Red Bull Rookie of the Year.
Career Accomplishments
- 2010/11 Red Bull Rookie of the Year
- 2rd Overall 2010/11 Kellogg's Nutri-Grain IronMan Series
- 1st Round 2 2010/11 Kellogg's Nutri-Grain IronMan Series (Bondi)
- 3rd Round 1 2010/11 Kellogg's Nutri-Grain IronMan Series (Bondi)
- 3rd Overall 2009/10 Kellogg's Nutri-Grain IronMan Series
- 1st U/19 Australian IronMan Championships
JULIE BARNETT
"To me sport is not being too old to perform. It's about performing when you're older.....I search for ways within my sporting life to continue my health and wellbeing."
Julie Barnett is a multiple World Champion at Masters level and has numerous World records to her credit.
Her most recent achievements included two gold medals at the World Masters Track Championships as well as three golds collected at the Nationals, where she set Championship records for the 500m and flying 200m distances.