Columnist Susan Snyder: A pedestrian request for your kids

Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 | 8:45 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or 259-4082.

The photograph offered a tragic portrait of what humans are capable of inflicting on each other.

It was taken in Northern Ireland a few days before photos of another tragedy pushed it from the world's psyche and view.

The image showed terror-stricken Catholic schoolgirls crying piteously and clinging to their mothers as they walked to school through a Protestant neighborhood in Belfast. Residents hurled insults and rocks at the youngsters, turning a simple walk into what Newsweek magazine called a "gauntlet of hate."

How lucky we are to be here where, despite all that we've endured these past weeks, parents can walk their children to school without such fear and turmoil.

It certainly sheds a different kind of light on the annual Walk Our Children to School Day, which is Tuesday.

With the help of grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 18 Clark County elementary schools and two middle schools will host breakfasts for parents who take the time to walk their offspring to school that day.

Each school received $2,000 to cover the cost of walk-to-school celebrations and also to pay for other events throughout the year that will promote healthy, active lifestyles.

Walk To School Day (as it's known internationally) is a worldwide effort that started in Great Britain, said Maggie Saunders, pedestrian and bicycle safety program coordinator for UNLV's Transportation Research Center. The day is now recognized in 20 countries.

And the first United States event was hosted in Chicago in 1997. Last year more than 2 million walkers in 47 states participated, according to figures from Walk To School Day USA.

"It's global. It's big," Saunders said.

"It cuts down on traffic congestion around the schools," she added. "And it's a great way for parents to see where their kids go and to meet other parents and school administrators."

This year's Las Vegas Valley event is being orchestrated by the UNLV Transportation Research Center and its Safe Community Partnership program. Saunders says they notified schools about the CDC grants. Every school that requested a grant received one.

But it's a wonder that out of 159 elementary schools and 37 middle schools only 20 applied. The grant's only requirement was that it be used to promote healthy lifestyles.

Walking to school is a good start -- especially in a country where 1 in 4 children is obese, and 60 percent of children 5 to 10 years old have at least one risk factor for heart disease.

But parents don't need a grant to make a healthy decision. Use Tuesday as an excuse to set a new goal of walking to school with your child one day a week or a couple of times a month.

More walkers means fewer cars to contend with around school property during drop-off and pickup times. It's also an opportunity to teach your child to safely cross the street or see whether he or she remembers how.

And it's one of those little daily luxuries we forget we have. What's the worst that can happen? Being a little late for work? We can be so blissfully ignorant of how lucky we are.

So rejoice in your community.

Rejoice in being physically fit.

Rejoice in your kid.

Walk to school Tuesday, just because you can.