GREENFIELD — With receipt of the Exemplary Program award through the state Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program, Greenfield Middle School is being honored for its work to encourage walking and biking to school.

First launched in 2005, MassDOT’s Safe Routes to School program recognizes schools across the state that make strides to encourage students to walk or bike to school. This summer, representatives from 218 schools gathered in Boston for the 20th award ceremony.

“As we celebrate 20 years of Safe Routes to School, we extend our deepest thanks to the school communities that have partnered with us to create safer, healthier ways for students to walk, bike and roll to school,” Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt said in a statement. “We congratulate this year’s honorees and, as always, applaud the dedication of all our school partners. Here’s to the next 20 years of advancing student safety, wellness and access.”

Greenfield Middle School Principal Michelle Fenimore said her school received this year’s Exemplary Program award for its bike rodeos, where children are taught bike safety while given helmets and bicycle tune-ups.

Fenimore said the program has expanded significantly in recent years thanks to the efforts of fifth grade teachers Anna Marchefka and Rose Skriloff, who help organize it.

“We work with different community organizations, local law enforcement, the Kiwanis Club, and two local bike shops who come and they fix and repair and tune up kids’ bikes. The Kiwanis Club donates helmets for all of our kiddos that come to the bike rodeo, and then the Department of Transportation sends a representative who sets up activities for the kids to talk about bike safety and they go through an obstacle course,” Fenimore recounted. “Over the last two years, it’s gotten bigger and bigger. We had the Greenfield Police Department bike cop come and he rode with the kids, and community members come … so we were recognized for promoting safe riding to school and in different ways to get to school, whether it be bike or scooter or skateboard.”

Skriloff said they bought a bicycle shortly before they began working for Greenfield Middle School roughly three years ago and biked to work. Skriloff and Marchefka worked with Safe Routes to School Outreach Coordinator Tori Halloran to start planning the bike rodeos.

“We did our first bike rodeo in the fall of 2023 and it was really successful, so we were able to really build from there,” Skriloff said. “[Halloran] was really, really integral in our ability to start programs and continue them.”

Skriloff said seeing students come to the bike rodeos with a broken bicycle and leave with a helmet and a fully repaired bike has been heartwarming. They noted that aside from the environmental benefits of cutting down on carbon emissions from vehicles, cycling to school offers students some independence.

“Biking provides independence for kids,” Skriloff said, “and for some of them, it’s the first-ever chance that they’ll have at that independence.”

Two decades since the Safe Routes to School program’s launch, it has partnered with more than 1,200 schools and expanded its scope to include high schools. Although Fenimore said this particular award did not include any monetary gains, the state program has provided funding for more than 100 infrastructure and street safety projects in school districts across the state.

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.