Just Walk Salem Wins Weston Award from Oregon Walks

Need some good news right now? Just Walk Salem has won a Weston Award from Oregon Walks! That's the Oscar or Emmy in the Oregon walking advocacy world.

The founders of Just Walk Salem, Jennifer Carley, Jeanine Stice, Pat Norman, will be honored December 2nd at the 6th Annual Weston Awards.

Oregon Walks' Weston Awards are named in honor of America's greatest walker, Edward P. Weston. In just 10 days in 1861, Weston walked from Boston to DC to attend Lincoln's Inaugural Ball. His journey took him to cities big and small, neighborhoods poor and rich, through a cross section of America, where he was welcomed at every turn.

The Weston Awards celebrate inspiration, enthusiasm, perseverance, and the conviction that one of the best ways to get anywhere is on foot. Join us in celebrating the Westons among us today: people from all walks of life who have made our communities more livable and more walkable.

The gala will be Friday, December 2nd, in The Treasury Ballroom at 326 SW Broadway in Portland, from 6:00pm-9:00pm

Just Walk also was awarded a grant for a project to unite young and old.

AARP Oregon and the Safe Routes to School National Partnership are working together to bring Oregonians an Inter-generational Safe Streets Challenge. Youth and older adults have similar needs when it comes to navigating our streets on foot. Whether a second grader is walking to school, their grandfather is walking to the corner store with their shopping trolley, or their aunt is walking to the park to socialize – we need accessible destinations, continuous paths, and safe crossings.

We’re pleased to announce the following recipients have been selected for the Inter-generational Safe Streets Challenge:

Just Walk Salem Keizer & Stephens Middle School (Salem-Keizer School District) Just Walk Salem Keizer (a grassroots network of neighborhood walking groups) will engage at least two groups of middle school students and older adults in working together to develop at least 1 walking route each that highlights the points of health in their neighborhood. The groups will cross-check the routes by conducting the Walkable America ‘walkability checklist’. Once finalized, the walking routes will be included in a full-color “WanderWalks” pocket map printed by our transit provider, Cherriots, and distributed to neighbors through community partners. This project aims to foster healthy neighborhoods through identifying safe and enjoyable places to walk together.

You may recall that we were not great fans of the first version of the Wander Walks map. Its routes did not always seem like they had been vetted through something like a "walkability checklist."

The actual practices of middle schoolers and older adults, as well as the formalized vetting through a checklist, seem likely to generate something much more useful and pleasant!

This looks like a very promising extension of the Wander Walks program.