This Wednesday, October 9th is National Walk and Roll to School Day.  Actually, it’s walk and bike to school, but I say “roll” because scooters, skateboards and roller blades count in my book too. This is a t-shirt from a parent last year who was helping promote the day. Out of the 900 children at my daughter’s school, at least 600 walked or rolled. There wasn’t a single spot left at any bike rack. Even the principal woke up early and rode her bike from many towns away.

How will you get to school or work on Wednesday? Can you continue to walk or roll through the next few months? Perhaps you’ll start to notice the trees changing in the season, your child talking more to and from school, and the quiet space between activities. Or not. Maybe you’ll be frantically running to school rushing your child down the street like I did half the time. Either way, you’ll both be moving which is the main goal!

I discovered that using the scooter to school was actually faster than driving. By the time I waited in the car line, found parking, and walked five blocks in, I could’ve been there and home if we scooted. Plus I wasn’t using gas, adding exhaust to the air, and sometimes had my son along exercising too. We would race each other there and home, and somehow, I always lost.

“A lifetime of being active can begin on the way to school.”