Category: <span>Events</span>

Vieja Valley Kicks Off Its First Bike/Walk to School Day!

Kids check in at school and receive a healthy snack, sticker, and enter their name in a raffle for a chance to win a big prize!

On Thursday, February 9th, Vieja Valley Elementary kicked off their monthly Walk and Bike to School Day! On the 9th of every month, kids, parents, and teachers will ditch their cars to walk and bike to school!

They had a great turnout this month, with loads of kids walking and riding their bikes to school. Many families who typically drive to school, rode their bikes instead. Some came from as far as the LaCumbre area, biking over the LaCumbre overpass and onto Modoc road, over a mile away! Families enjoyed the morning air and exercise, and it was a great opportunity to spend time with their kids before heading off to work!

Kids who participated in Walk to School Day got a healthy snack of granola bars and orange juice, a sticker, and entered their names in a raffle for a chance to win a big prize! The class with the highest average participation will also receive a treat.

We’d like to thank Sasha McGibben, a mom who organized the first event, and will be organizing all of the monthly Walk/Bike to School Days!

With the aid of the crossing guard, kiddos walk their bikes across the crosswalk to get to school!

In addition to Vieja Valley’s Walk/Bike to School Day, COAST’s Safe Routes to School Program is really taking off this year! We’re expanding into schools we’ve never been before  including those in Carpinteria. We also started pilot programs in Isla Vista Elementary and Franklin Elementary. We are so excited, and can’t wait to share our successes with you!

The Intersection of De La Vina and Figueroa to Get Curb Extensions.

The Santa Barbara City Council voted to proceed with Alternative 2A and install curb extensions and lighting at the Figueroa/De la Vina intersection, returning to the original proposal that won the HSIP grant. The vote was 4-3, with Council members Francisco, Hotchkiss and Rowse opposed and Schneider, House, White and Murillo in favor.

COAST would like to thank our newest council member, Cathy Murillo, who went out there herself to observe and spoke eloquently to the needs of the many walkers in the area.

We also want to thank all the people who e-mailed and called. Brittany Odermann Heaton, Robert Adams and Ed France spoke in favor of alternative 2A – thank you!

Through all of our efforts, we turned this around.

San Ysidro Footpath Welcomed by Montecito Community


On January 11, representatives of COAST attended a very special ribbon cutting ceremony. It was for the footpath on San Ysidro Road leading to Montecito Union School that COAST helped bring about. MUS Superintendent Tammy Murphy and Supervisor Salud Carbajal led the ceremony together with all the students of the school. The kids actually cut the ribbon. They had placed thank-you notes on all the mailboxes on San Ysidro Road and left a sunflower at each one. Large groups of up to 50 children and their parents walked the new path to school that day. Later, when the kids were in school, dog walkers and joggers enjoyed it as well.

We thank Supervisor Carbajal who rolled up his sleeves and got things done. We thank our County Public Works staff, above all Matt Dobberteen, who worked hard on this. We thank all the parents who did not stop pushing for this. Most of all, we thank Stephen Murdoch for getting the ball rolling and for his generosity to COAST. He is still in London and so could not be with us on this special day, but his parents, Joan and Bill Murdoch, were present. Exactly five years ago, in January of 2007, Stephen and I first had coffee at Pierre Lafond’s in the Upper Village to talk about a path because he had no safe place to walk to school with his two young daughters. Afterward, we walked along San Ysidro Road together, clambering over rocks and tree roots. Now the path we imagined has become a reality. I hope that one day, Stephen will be back and walk to school on this path with his daughters. (Report by Eva Inbar)

Photos by: Lisa Valencia