With the annual Award for Excellence in Health Promotion established in 2007, the SHCHC is proud to honour individuals whose activities and initiatives have contributed to improving the health and wellness of our community. These unsung heroes deserve our recognition for their contributions to building healthy Sandy Hill and Ottawa East communities through activities such as health education, policy initiatives or increased public awareness around health issues, and who demonstrated leadership and collaborated with others to promote health and wellness in the community. 

This year, the award was presented at the Annual General Meeting on June 29th, to Ms. Karen Bays, in recognition of her leadership role as a committed volunteer with the Viscount Alexander Public School and resident of the Sandy Hill community. Her development of the Walking School Bus is the first of its kind in the Ottawa Carleton District School Board. Her interest stemmed from research on physical activity and childhood obesity, as well as her perception of the neighbourhood as being a very “walkable” community. 

Karen first started on her own accord, as part of Active Ottawa, giving prizes to anyone she saw walking to school on Winter Walk-to-School Day, in February of 2009. This was followed by the promotion of Walk-to-School Day, in conjunction with the school, in spring of 2009. The Viscount Alexander Public School “Walking School Bus”, headed by Karen, was officially launched in October 2009, with two routes, twice a week. By September 2010, the Walking School Bus was running five days a week, at two different times in the morning, and in conjunction with a new school breakfast program.

It was through the vision and tireless effort of Karen that the Walking School Bus began, and has become an important part of the school and community. Karen organized the “bus” and its routes, personally recruited members of the community as volunteers “drivers”, established valuable partnerships with our Centre and Action Sandy Hill, and promoted the Walking School Bus through the community newspaper and school events.