Editor’s Note: Today is International Walk to School Day, and many local children celebrated in style. From Champaign to Urbana, various schools had events and fun planned to celebrate. Today also marks one month since Gwenna Pelz’ daughter, a second grader at South Side School in Champaign, was hit by a car while trying to cross Prospect Avenue on her way home from school. Since then, parents, administrators, and the City of Champaign have been addressing this dangerous crossing in hopes that this kind of accident will never happen again.
By Gwenna Pelz
September 9, 2013. I will never forget the day the scariest moment of my life happened. My daughter was trying to cross Prospect Avenue coming home from school when she was hit by a car and broke her leg. My two sons and I were just feet away watching, screaming, and feeling helpless to stop it. How fast something so life-changing can happen. The accident occurred such a short distance from our home. We see that intersection every day and the nervous feelings return with the images of that moment.
The good news is she is healing. She will make a full recovery. We are all healing. And we are discovering the beauty that strangely co-exists with such a traumatic event. There’s such beauty in all of the care and kindness we’ve been given. There is beauty in the strength and courage we see in ourselves. This has forced us to slow down, stay home, and just be together and focus on loving each other. There is true goodness in that. In the midst of this storm we have found peace. And we are surrounded by the most wonderful family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers anyone could hope for. Our daughter has returned to school and the students, families, teachers, and staff have been so concerned and helpful. It is beautiful.
But what now? What’s next for this town and that busy street? I sit here and think about what could be done to make it safer. And now we feel like the responsibility is ours to help see some changes made. It’s on our watch. We couldn’t bear to see another child get hurt, or worse. We don’t want another family to have to go through this. We clearly see the problem and want to help be a part of a plan for a solution. As I believe many are feeling the same way, let’s work together to make sure this never happens again.
What can we do? Here are some requests that have been submitted to the Champaign Police Department and members of the City Council. We want to see a 20 mph School Speed Zone with flashing lights be put in place along Prospect between Green and Haines. Some people driving this stretch of road are not even aware that there is an elementary school a block away. Springfield Avenue has a School Speed Zone and it does not have a school directly on it so why can’t Prospect? We would also like to see a crosswalk painted on an intersection, perhaps at Daniel or another street that is determined to be safer. Once again, on campus Springfield has many crosswalks for college students.
It seems protecting our elementary students, middle school students, and bikers in this area should be just as important. We would like to see a crossing guard be assigned to the cross walk and we’d like to see more regular police presence. These changes would help to make Champaign safer for so many, but especially our school-aged children. We need your support and we need our voices to be heard. If you support these changes being put into place, you can write to the Mayor, City Council, and Police Department. You can also come to the City Council planning meeting on October 22 at 7 p.m. at the City Building. The address is 102 N. Neil Street. Our input is encouraged and if we have community members there to support these changes, I believe that would be a strong message that could not be ignored. Please, come.
Thank you to the parents that have been taking the lead in researching information and creating possible plans or solutions. Thank you to the Police Department who has been increasing their presence already, putting up some signs, and gathering their own data. Thank you to the City Council members for being willing to listen and being open to our suggestions. Thank you to the School District, especially South Side Principal Bill Taylor, for submitting these requests to the Police Department. I believe we all want the same thing, for Champaign to be as safe as possible and this is something we can do to make that happen. Let’s not stop with these initial changes, let’s see this through to the end. Please join us in this effort.
Gwenna grew up in Champaign and loves calling it home. She believes it is an ideal place to raise her three amazing children with Andrew, her husband of 12 years. They love learning and exploring places together. She has the privilege of teaching preschoolers part-time. She knows life is never perfect and that we can all learn a lot from each other.