This letter was sent to Hardy Principal Deb D’Amico,Superintendent Kathleen Bodie and the School Committee.

The East Arlington Livable Streets (EALS) Coalition would like to thank you for your continuing support of the Hardy Safe Routes to School Program. EALS Coalition is an East Arlington neighborhood group of over 150 members and over 350 people on Facebook that believes our community is strengthened when sustainable transportation is promoted. Many of our members have, will have, or have had children at the Hardy school and we believe it is important to continue encouraging families to walk or bike safely to school.

We are pleased that soon bike racks will be installed at the Hardy school in support of this year’s efforts and hopeful that the dismount zone around the school will keep everyone safe. Improving the ability and safety of Hardy families to walk and bike to school are the best ways to decrease traffic congestion around the school while promoting active kids.

In late April, EALS will be reaching out to local East Arlington Businesses asking them to get involved in the success of the program. They can do this by providing raffle prizes and other incentives for participating students. We hope this will create a stronger bond between our neighborhood, local school, and businesses that will be mutually beneficial to all.

The staff of the Hardy school will be crucial to this year’s success as well. It is critical that the staff not only get the kids excited about walking and biking to school, but be involved as well. It would be great to see them walking or biking with some of their students on the big event days.

Building off the success of last year’s Hardy pilot program we are hopeful with our increased volunteer efforts matched by the efforts of the business community, the Hardy Staff, and PTO will make this year even more successful. Starting with the Walkathon on May 7^th until the final playground celebration on June 7^th, let’s make this year’s event the best ever.

Thanks to your vision, the Hardy School can be a model of a sustainable, green neighborhood school for all of Arlington to emulate.