This past Climate Week (September 19-23), Climate Smart Rhinebeck helped address a difficult problem kids face daily when heading to school: the lack of crosswalks on the corner of South and South Parsonage Streets. 

The purpose of this temporary chalk creation is to show everyone the importance of a safe path to school and to allow more students the opportunity to walk to school instead of riding in a car and producing carbon emissions into the atmosphere. 

Though seemingly sudden, these crosswalks actually have a lot of planning behind them. This summer, Rhinebeck Youth Voices held an optional activity where students were able to walk around the Village and choose what they thought would be the most important things to focus on changing for the better. 

As Amaia Hayes, a member of the original group, explained, “First, we walked around [the Village of Rhinebeck], specifically near the Lion’s Mini Park, and we noticed the intersection was really unsafe and that we needed a better route to school. Scout Pronto-Breslin brought plans to be approved by [Mayor Gary Bassett] for a temporary crosswalk to make a safer route to school [and the crosswalks were approved]!”

After the approval, students were able to volunteer to help create the actual crosswalk on September 21st.

“We used temporary chalk spray paint to paint a crosswalk with animal footprints to direct students on a better path to school and back. It was really fun and messy and it felt good to help the community!” said Amaia.

The two crosswalks are white with green flowers and purple animal footprints inside them, and you can see how they came to life from the original concept art by Scout Pronto to the final result (pictured above). Those a part of the initiative feel that this is a good start to making the town safer but it definitely would be better if it’s permanent.

So, if you see this sidewalk on your walk to school this week, let it be a reminder of the possibilities of change all around us, and that our voices can be heard! If you are interested in participating in future RBK 2042 initiatives, head to https://sites.google.com/view/rhinebeckyouthvoices and find out more!