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Most of the kids were thrilled. "This is my first time ever to walk to school," Zachary Strasser, 6, told his mother, Amy, that morning. Another girl reportedly bounded out of bed proclaiming, "It's Walk To School Day!"
Wednesday, in a gray dawn that threatened rain, I joined more than two dozen kids and parents at Rea Road and Candlewyck Lane who did something unusual in Charlotte and much of America: They walked to school.
We set out at 7:50 a.m. for Olde Providence Elementary School. The biggest obstacle came right away: no crosswalk, pedestrian light or crossing guard at Rea Road. But for International Walk to School Day a police officer stood by to help. The whole walk took less than 15 minutes.
What was remarkable was that it was so remarkable. In 2009, hardly any U.S. kids walk to school any more. In 1969, 41 percent of children walked or biked to school; by 2001, only 13 percent did.
That may change. Public health officials are deeply concerned about overweight U.S. children. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that some 16 percent of children ages 6-19 are overweight or obese; 1 in 10 high school students in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is obese.
So look for more community-wide efforts to get us all in better shape. One example: The Mecklenburg County Health Department, Carolinas HealthCare System and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools recently won a $93,000 grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust for a Healthy Weight, Healthy Child Initiative.
Wednesday's hoopla at Olde Providence was part of a long-term effort to encourage more walking or biking to school. Cotswold and Beverly Woods Elementary schools hold regular walk-to-school events, as do four schools in Davidson.
This effort is not without challenges. Some parents think it's unsafe for kids to walk without an adult - and sometimes they're right. I wouldn't, for instance, let a young child of mine cross Rea Road alone. It's too busy, the sidewalk too close to the traffic.
Dick Winters, the health department's Safe Routes To Schools coordinator, is working with interested Olde Providence parents to organize a "walking school bus" - a fancy name for parent volunteers who team up to walk children to school.
When I asked Winters what obstacles he encounters in getting more kids walking, his list was long. It included school locations, volume and speed of traffic, lack of sidewalks and bike lanes, convenience and parental concerns. Obviously, large schools have large attendance zones, and not all children live close enough to school to make walking feasible. Magnet schools mean some kids attend far from where they live - and that's OK, because the magnet schools strengthen CMS overall.
But the biggest obstacle, Winters said, is finding interested parents who'll take the initiative to get organized.
Some parents are uncomfortable giving children the freedom to walk. Others frown on parents who do. A New York Times article last month told about a Mississippi 10-year-old boy who wanted to walk to soccer practice, a mile from home. His mother said OK. But people saw him and called 911. A police officer picked him up and reprimanded his mother.
The tide may be turning, nationally, on this surfeit of parental caution. Author Richard Louv's popular 2005 book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder," pointed out how more and more U.S. children spend virtually no time outdoors. They aren't climbing trees, camping out or exploring their world. (Louv will be in town next week, speaking at noon Wednesday at the Freedom Park band shell.)
Natalie Cochran - mother of Sam, 7, and Lucy, 9 - says they're "fair-weather walkers." Like many parents, she knows some outdoor action helps with in-school attention spans. "Sometimes I think it gets a little bit of the bounce out before they sit in school," is how she put it.
Last Wednesday's festivities may have lured parental involvement. But for many of the kids, I noticed, just the thrill of walking, outside, was inducement enough.
