Crowds of elementary and middle school students will be walking the streets and sidewalks of Meridian this morning – some long after the first bell has rung.

The students will be participating in National Walk to School Day. All elementary and middle schools in the Meridian Public School District have scheduled activities around the observance.

"Walk to School events are a way for schools and communities to build enthusiasm for walking to school, promote the benefits of walking and bring visibility to any safety concerns," said MPSD Superintendent Charlie T. Kent Jr.

Kent – along with Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors Joe Norwood and Ray Boswell, Meridian City Council members Jesse Palmer, Mary Perry and Barbara Henson, and Meridian/Lauderdale County Keep America Beautiful Coordinator Sharon Smith – will join students at T.J. Harris Upper and Lower Elementary School as they walk from their campuses to Highland Park. The lower elementary students will walk at 9 a.m., upper elementary at 10 a.m.

"We hope to encourage our students to be healthy," said Wanda Kendrick, principal of Harris Upper and Lower Elementary School.

The elementary students' walk also will coincide with Harris' Safe Routes to School Program.

"We have received a grant to make it safer for our students to walk to school, because so many of them do," Kendrick said. "We'll get sidewalks and a bridge to make it safer for them to walk."

Kendrick said she also hopes the Walk to School Day event will encourage safety among those students who walk to and from school.

"When we walk to the park, we want to show the students a safe route of crossing the street and coming back until we get the sidewalks and bridge, as well as show them the importance of the grant we wrote and were approved for, because it's for them."

Magnolia Middle School students, faculty, staff and administrators also have been encouraged to walk to school in observance of National Walk to School Day.

"Our assistant principal, lead teacher and counselor will meet at my house at 7 a.m. to walk to school together," said Jonas Crenshaw Jr., principal.

Stations will be set up around the school neighborhood – at the corner of 24th Street and 16th Avenue and on the corner of 14th Avenue and 23rd Street – to recognize those students and staff members who have chosen to walk to school. Juice will be served and prizes will be awarded for participation in the wellness event.

"In addition to knowing that walking provides great exercise for our students, Magnolia has chosen to participate in this initiative as an effort to create a sense of common community for our school," Crenshaw said.

"We work hard to ensure that our students feel safe and enjoy a school climate that they feel they belong to. We hope that activities like these will help our physical neighborhood community accept more ownership of our students and their safety," he said.

In 1997, the Partnership for a Walkable America sponsored the first National Walk Our Children to School Day in Chicago, modeled after the United Kingdom's lead. Back then, it was simply a day to bring community leaders and children together to create awareness of the need for communities to be walkable.

By 2002, children, parents, teachers and community leaders in all 50 states joined nearly 3 million walkers around the world to celebrate the Second Annual International Walk to School Day. The reasons for walking grew just as quickly as the event itself: safer and improved streets, healthier habits or cleaner air.

In 2005, new legislation recognized the value of Safe Routes to School programs and is providing funding for states to establish programs. Politicians and other government officials are paying attention to the importance of safe walking and biking to school. Obesity, concern for the environment and the effects of urban sprawl on communities has led to the joining of efforts among those that care about these and other related issues like school siting and traffic congestion.