From The Child in the City of Play lectures at MoMA  last year to our recent involvement with Louisiana Children’s Museum and Places to Play in New Orleans,  Imagination Playground has been thinking a lot about how environments can impact children’s growth and learning through play.

Early in the month Alex Smith at Playgroundology  tipped us off to a fantastic initiative called March2Work  that has been “campaigning for safer routes to playspaces.”

Chris Gregory during March2Work, images courtesy of March2Work.net

The brainchild of Chris Gregory, March2Work came about through observations he noted  while on daily bicycle commutes through his town in the Isle of Man. As in many communities across the globe, the rise of busy dangerous roads had taken a toll on the levels of pedestrian and cyclist activity, especially for younger generations trying to get to school and play spaces.

Although often a common topic of discussion, Chris came up with a refreshingly innovative approach to raise awareness. Choosing to “travel to work throughout March using different forms of transport based on childhood games and activities,” Chris has been seen doing everything from skateboarding and walking on stilts to hoola-hooping and pretending to be an airplane. The best part? Anyone can join! He is often seen actively participating in each day’s unique travels with local school children, instilling the value of safe, outdoor play.

March2Work Compilation – courtesy of www.march2work.net

Check out Chris’ chronicles of his daily adventures via video here: www.march2work.net/Videos and his twitter updates here: twitter.com/chrisplayiom

Even though March 22 marks the official March2Work day (and his final day of creative commutes), we know his “campaigning to give children of the Isle of man the freedom to play out” will certainly touch communities worldwide as they rethink the accessibility of their towns.