WSB 2024-2025 – Organizing Night

Please join us Tues Oct 8 at 6 pm in the multipurpose room at school to help shape the Walking School Bus groups for this year! This grassroots organizing night is a key component of deciding what routes the groups will take each morning (with some operating after school as well), what the ground rules are, and in fact, which groups run at all.

The Active Travel page on this site gives you a general overview of how Hastings PAC is trying to encourage families to find ways to get to school that don’t involve using a car. That can mean scooting, biking, or using your own two feet!

The Walking School Bus groups are a great way for students to get some fresh air and exercise in the morning, make friends with children from other programs and grades, and to take action on climate change. Participants meet at the starting point and walk together along a designated route to (and/or from school), picking up additional students along the way as needed. It’s also a great opportunity for Gr. 6 and 7 students to demonstrate leadership and caring about their community.

Some groups have decided to compensate leaders, while others have opted not to. It’s a group decision made at, you guessed it, the planning night!

We already have the following groups:

Burrardview (student-led)

Penticton & Georgia (student-led)

Garden (parent-led)

Ferndale & Lakewood (parent-led)

We can add stops and even entire groups based on our planning night, so please be sure to join us! We’ll have pizza and beverages available, so you don’t even have to worry about dinner, and kids are definitely welcome.

Volunteer Call-outs

Lend a helping hand at Hastings School

The PAC has several call outs for help, if you are interested in donating some time:

Staff Appreciation Breakfast – June 30th
Set-up in the undercover area; Laughing Bean to provide coffee and pastries
Needs help to prep decorations and help on the day (set up 8:30am; tear down 1pm); contact the PAC at info@hastingspac.ca

Garden Summer Watering Call Out
Need one more family to take one week over summer; contact the PAC at info@hastingspac.ca

Hastings Day One – Welcome Back Event September 2021
Happens on first day of school; great opportunity to reach out and meet new parents
Contact the PAC at info@hastingspac.ca if interested in helping out / planning early September.

Walking School Bus Call Out
Need more parent volunteers to make it happen; contact the PAC at info@hastingspac.ca

The Walking School Bus is doing a call out for committee members!

It's cool to walk to school

The super popular Walking School Bus (WSB) was suspended due to COVID, but we are hopeful that we can get it up and running again soon!

The WSB not only helps parents get their kids safely to school, it also provides leadership opportunities for senior students and for students to form connections between different grades and programs. It also provides a fun way for students to have additional physical activity on a daily basis, and to decrease the level of vehicle congestion around school. In an era of growing awareness around climate change, every participant in the WSB is taking steps forward to the planet we want to have in the future.

An initiative like this take organizing and planning, so if you are interested in being involved in the restart, please email the PAC at info@hastingspac.ca and we can connect you with other parents.