Salem-Keizer Safe Routes to School: Summer 2026 Newsletter

Even though school was out for the summer, Salem-Keizer Safe Routes to School (SK-SRTS) stayed as busy as ever. We took full advantage of the summer months to refresh our educational material, update our digital resources, expand our equipment fleets, and hit the ground running at local community events across the region.

To make our offerings as accessible and easy to understand as possible for the schools we serve, we spent a large portion of the summer simplifying and redesigning our downloadable program guides.

For each of our educational offerings, we provide educators with a comprehensive guide outlining the curriculum, offering pre-education prep materials, and equipping teachers with complete slide decks and talking notes.

In addition, our team created direct digital links for all program resources, aligned all curriculum materials with school district standards, and updated graphics and layouts across all downloadable guides. We overhauled our program website with new event photography, active social media links, and plan to open public access to our complete library of school program guides.

This summer, we were thrilled to be invited to Keizer Blast Camp, a free summer safety program for youth organized by the Keizer Fire District, Keizer Police Department and Marion County Fire District. Blast Camp is designed to teach children how to be safe, responsible citizens, providing us with the perfect stage to pilot our brand-new Transit Town layout and redesigned Pedestrian Safety Education Curriculum.

Transit Town is an interactive, pop-up miniature city that gives students hands-on experience navigating urban spaces, interacting safely with local store vendors, and looking out for their peers. Complete with kid-sized replicas of fire stations, police departments, schools, businesses, and homes, campers were tasked with mapping out pedestrian routes to reach specific checkpoints throughout the city.

We were proud to partner with MAPS Credit Union, Bentley's Coffee, and Cherriots to bring this real-world training environment to life. The response from camp organizers and campers was overwhelming. On our first day, our introductory pedestrian safety lesson ranked as the campers second favorite activity for the day. On our second day, we transformed the parking lot into Transit Town. It was voted the single most popular activity of the entire camp session!

We are thrilled by this initial success and cannot wait to bring Transit Town to the 6 elementary schools already signed up for the 2026–2027 school year.

To dust the cobwebs off our bikes, we loaded up Heron, our 8’x25’ cargo trailer packed with 35 Trek bikes and headed out to connect with families at the Mill City Back to School Resource Fair. We hosted a community bike rodeo for roughly 70 students, teaching proper helmet fitting, hand signals, and stop-sign awareness before sending them through our custom skills course. Partnering on-site, Santiam Hospital ensured every student went home with a brand-new, properly fitted helmet.

Further down the canyon in Stayton, we spent a morning teaching young riders the fundamentals of bicycle safety. We reviewed helmet fitting, taught proper riding attire checks, covered the "ABCQs" (Air, Brakes, Chain, Quick Releases) of bicycle, and led group practice for stopping and turning signals.

Local in Salem, our team attended 2 of 3 Fun Friday events to distribute educational resources and hand out bright reflective gear so students remain visible on their daily commutes to schools, libraries, and parks. At the Micronesian Islander Community Back to School Fair, we provided customized safety gear based on how each student commutes, distributing visibility equipment for walkers, bus riders, and youth riding bikes, scooters, or skateboards.

To keep up with exploding demand across the district, we officially purchased a second cargo trailer and ordered an additional 40 Trek bicycles for our Bike Safety Education fleet.

Building 40 bikes is no small task, so we partnered with the Rotary Club of Salem for an after-hours assembly night at the bike shop. Ten volunteers showed up, learned professional assembly skills, and worked alongside shop mechanics to build our entire new fleet in a single evening. Thanks to their hard work, the new bikes were fully prepped, branded, and delivered to storage well ahead of the first day of school.

As we enter the 2026–2027 school year, our calendar is officially packed: our team will be teaching in local schools during every single week of the academic year. 11 schools are signed up for bike safety, learn to ride, or both. 6 schools are scheduled for Pedestrian Safety Education and Transit Town. 5 schools are set to host Public Transit Safety Education with Cherriots.

This is a monumental milestone for our program. To deliver on this commitment, we are actively expanding our volunteer team. If you or someone you know is passionate about youth safety and active transit, please reach out to us to get registered as a program volunteer today!