This November, around 60 Sonoma County schools participated in Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day, honoring civil rights icon Ruby Bridges, who in 1960 at the age of six, courageously attended William Franz Elementary School in New Orleans, initiating the desegregation of the city’s public schools.
In 2018, a group of AAA Safety Patrollers from Martin Elementary in South San Francisco learned about Ruby Bridges for the first time and thought there should be a special day to commemorate her and the movement she started. These students took their idea to the state legislature, and in 2021 the California State Senate passed a resolution declaring November 14 Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day in California.
The Sonoma County Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program encourages and supports schools to hold Ruby Bridges Walk to School Days in November. This year, we offered a unique and fun opportunity, thanks to a sponsorship from the Mineta Transportation Institute — every school that registered for Ruby Bridges received a $60 Zappos Gift Card to be raffled off or given to a student for a pair of sneakers.
Our school partners celebrated Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day in a variety of ways with school wide events, festive welcome tables and many “walking school buses” where students, family members and staff met and walked to school together, often waving purple Ruby Bridges flags and carrying a banner.
We also offered a Ruby Bridges Letter Writing Challenge during November asking students to write to Ruby about why what she did was so meaningful, and what walking to school, community, and/or equal rights means to them. We will be looking at all the letters and selecting a number of students to receive a $25 Gift Card to Copperfield’s bookstore. We will also be forwarding all original copies of letters that we receive to the Ruby Bridges Foundation.
We are so grateful to Ruby Bridges for taking those brave first steps in making an extraordinary and positive change for our country.
–Sarah Hadler, SRTS Program Manager