During the month of December, the Perafita EB 2,3 school received the first kit in the scope of "School Sport on Wheels", the equivalent to 20 bicycles

Promoted by the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth, in partnership with the Directorate General of Education and with the support of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), the project "School Sports on Wheels" represents an investment of 2.8 million euros - supported by the PRR - and will allow the Government to deliver 21 thousand bicycles, along with maintenance kits, in 863 schools of the 2nd cycle of basic education in the country.
The ceremony, symbolic, included interventions from João Paulo Correia, Secretary of State for Youth and Sport, Luísa Salgueiro, Mayor of Matosinhos, and Mariana Espogeira, Director of the Perafita Schools Grouping.
João Paulo Correia spoke of Matosinhos as a national reference in what concerns sports, addressing words of recognition to the municipality for the investment made in this sector. "Matosinhos has been over the years betting on sport on several fronts. Infrastructures, multisports policy, with the support to several sports, including adapted sports, and training of the youngest, are flags that must be acknowledged", he stressed, also taking the opportunity to praise the importance of this type of projects for the promotion of physical activity and awareness for the adoption of healthy life habits, adding that, in a second phase, the programme will be extended to the promotion of the use of bicycles by teachers and school assistants. "We want tomorrow to be more sustainable", she concluded.
Luísa Salgueiro addressed words of gratitude to the Perafita school for the reception, showing that the Perafita school community is "open, capable and that favours the formation of citizens". "The school is not a closed space that ends at its gates," she stressed. "The involvement of the board, teachers, students, parents and various collectivities of the Union of the Parishes are proof of the dynamism that is lived here," she stressed.
"We have long advocated for this new relationship with bicycles and sustainable modes of transport. This project is just one more step that will contribute to change behaviours", he added.
The bicycle delivery ceremony counted with the involvement of the whole school and education community, namely the students, who, with the help of their teachers, prepared small theatre and music performances that made the moment even more special and participated.
Also present at this ceremony were the Vice-Chairman of the Municipality, Carlos Mouta, the Councillor for Sports and Director of Matosinhos Sport, Vasco Pinho, the Director of Matosinhos Sport, Henrique Calisto, and the President of the Parish Councils of Perafita, Lavra and Santa Cruz do Bispo, Lurdes Queirós.
In Matosinhos, until the end of 2024, bicycles with the respective helmets will be distributed in all primary and secondary schools, with a composition adaptable to different ages, giving students other motor skills, with the main objective of contributing to Portugal becoming, by 2030, one of the European countries with the best physical activity indexes.
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