Gordon Terrace Elementary School marked World Car Free Day, September 22nd, with a walk around the school with members of the community. Staff and local members of the community were urged to leave their cars at home and walk, bike or carpool to the event and to work that day.

Natasha Ewing, the East Kootenay region Idle Free Ambassador, organized the event, and said, "September 22nd is World Car Free Day. This is a world wide initiative to educate people about vehicle emissions. We are instructing people to try self-propelled means of getting around such as walking or biking as well as mass transit and carpooling."

Ewing has teamed with Gordon Terrace Elementary in trying to get the community and the Kootenays to become aware of the hazards of vehicle emissions. Gordon Terrace is one of the leaders in the community for their work for the environment. The school is heading into it's second year as an idle free zone.

Gordon Terrace Principal David Standing said, "All the kids in the school are involved with this great event. The kids are completely committed to the environment. We are involved with many events such as planting trees at Joseph Creek as well as projects in Africa."

Also participating in the walk was Paul Willis, a meteorologist for the Ministry of Environment. He spoke about the air quality in the area, "Cranbrook generally has good air quality. However, during the last data collection, air quality exceeded national guidelines for clean air one out of four days."

Data has not been collected recently as Cranbrook has been without monitoring equipment for a few years. However, that should change as Willis expects a couple of new instruments in the next few weeks. Willis suggests much of the contaminants in the air are due to woodstoves, slash burning, wildfires in the summer and all the road dust in the spring.

"People need to be aware of other modes of transportation. They don't always have to drive," Willis suggested. "If you burn wood, burn smart. Use dry, seasoned wood and low emission stoves. Limit backyard burning. Take advantage of the free drop off at the transfer station."

When the cold weather comes, Ewing says that people don't need to warm there cars up for a long period of time before driving, "Use a block heater, 1 - 2 hours before driving to help warm the car up easier. Be sure to clear moisture from the air intake on the outside of the vehicle. Also, roll up the window a little bit to equalize the temperature inside and out; so the windows don't fog up."