FAIRHOPE, Ala - If you’re driving – or walking –near several local schools this Friday or next Wednesday, you might see a number of elected officials join with hundreds of Fairhope students and parents as they walk to school as part of an international walk-to-school event. 

“Fairhope is a city well known for liking to walk,” Charlene Lee, program director of Smart Coast, said Monday as she handed out invitations to the City Council and mayor to join in the city’s participation in the international event. “We hope you will walk with us and the five local schools participating this year.” 

During October, students and local leaders from around the world walk to school together to bring awareness and support efforts to make that practice more common in their communities. 

“Most of us have fond memories of walking to school, but how many of us have fond memories of riding to school,” said Robin Dilsaver, Fairhope Elementary School’s liaison for the local walk-to-school program and gifted teacher. “I think it really benefits the children, parents and community in a lot of ways. We would love to see students walk to school every day.”

Fairhope’s program began in 2008 with an organized walk on the first Friday of each month, where parents and students park at a central location and walk to school from there. The  program has grown this year to include the kindergarten, elementary, intermediate and middle schools, as well as the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education. 

“For many places, there is not a clear safe route to walk to school,” Lee said Monday before the council meeting. “By parking in central places like the library, parents and students can meet there and then walk to school safely on a sidewalk.”

On Monday, the council adopted a resolution in support of the Fairhope program, noting its recognition of “the health benefits of walking and the need for children to live more active lives and of reducing the number of cars in the drop-off lines at local schools, which increases air quality near the schools and reduces traffic congestion.”

In a related development, construction began recently on a sidewalk along Boothe Road between Spring Run Drive and Twin Beech Road near Fairhope High School that was funded by a “Safe Routes to School” grant of $182,840 in 2008 from the Alabama Department of Transportation to the Baldwin County Commission. 

“If we renew the culture of walking again, then a lot of students may choose to walk on a regular basis,” Lee said. “Our walk-to-school program began in Fairhope, and we hope it will spread across the county and in Mobile.”

FES has been active in the local program from the start, with its principal walking every month with students and parents.

“We became involved because we believe our children need to be encouraged to be more physically active, and this was one tool to move them along that path,” said FES Principal Terry Beasley. “They can also walk with friends, talk about things of interest to them, enjoy the time, and get a little exercise too. A big issue too is that the traffic, gas use, and fumes around the school are reduced greatly.”

The local walk-to-school program is a joint effort of Smart Coast, the city planning department, the county school system and the county commission, Lee said. Smart Coast is a Fairhope-based nonprofit that promotes sustainable development. 

For students, parents and others interested in joining in the upcoming international walk-to-school event, these are the times and places:

• At 7:15 a.m., Friday, Oct. 1:

Fairhope K students and parents meet in the parking lot of the Fairhope Civic Center

Fairhope Elementary School participants meet at Fairhope Public Library.

• At 7:15 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 6:

FIS participants meet in parking lot of Big Lots on Greeno Road

FMS participants meet in parking lot of Founder’s Park east of Greeno Road

Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education participants meet at Bell Building on campus of Faulkner State Community College.

“It’s very exciting about all the national attention our Fairhope program is receiving,” Lee told the council Monday, referring to a summary of the Fairhope pilot program by the National Center for Safe Routes to School website as “monthly walk-to-school events are habit-forming.”

For more information, call Lee at 928-9309 or visit the group’s website at www.smartcoast.org.