Town officials joined students and school officials on Oct. 9 when the Violet Avenue Elementary School participated in the National Walk To School Day. From l. to r. Doug Hieter, board president of the Hyde Park Central School District; Dr. Greer Rychcik, schools superintendent; Todd Tancredi, Poughkeepsie Councilman; Deanna Gonzalez, principal of Violet Avenue Elementary School; and Michael Cifone, Town of Poughkeepsie, Ward 4 Ward Councilman stand with Violet Avenue students. The annual event draws attention to the many benefits of walking to school and builds support for creating or improving safe routes in the community. Last year, a $423,500 Federal Highway Transportation grant from the Safe Routes to School program funded the construction of new sidewalks and the acquisition of speed monitoring equipment to enable Violet Avenue school children to walk safely to school from adjacent neighborhoods.