Sen. Kit Bond to lead Healthy Kids event and GetAbout Columbia Ribbon-cutting in Columbia Friday

Healthy Kids - Healthy Columbia postcard

You're invited to a ribbon-cutting of a new trail connection in Columbia, Missouri, by Senator Kit Bond.

April 17, 2009, 9:30AM
MKT Trail Plaza
Stewart & Providence
Columbia, Missouri

We are hoping to have hundreds of people out to this event with Senator Bond--because Senator Bond has played a key role in bringing the innovative GetAbout Columbia program to Missouri and will play a key role in writing the upcoming federal transportation bill--in which we hope to expand and extend programs like GetAbout Columbia.

More about the event Friday and the significance of Senator Bond's support from PedNet Executive Director Ian Thomas:

FRIDAY, APRIL 17: HEALTHY KIDS, HEALTHY COLUMBIA CELEBRATION AND GETABOUT COLUMBIA RIBBON-CUTTING

PedNet has recently learned that Senator kit Bond has a strong interest in
policies that promote children's health. He is extremely supportive of our
Walking School Bus program and our new Robert Wood Johnson (RWJF) grant
focused on low-income kids. It seems that this is the legacy he is
concentrating on for his last two years in the senate.

As a result of our conversations, and with the involvement of national
advocacy organizations like RWJF, Safe Routes to School National
Partnership, and Rails to Trails Conservancy, it is possible that Bond will
be the Republican lead on the reauthorization of the federal Non-Motorized
Transportation and the Safe Routes to School programs, and their possible
expansion from $700 million to $4 billion. This would be enormously good
news for (a) the national movement, (b) Columbia's national status as a
model healthy and active community, and (c) PedNet's future funding and
achievement of our mission.

A vital element in the development of this relationship will be the platform
we have offered the Senator and which he has accepted, to announce his
health policy credentials on Friday 4/17 in Columbia. That morning, he will
walk with one of our Walking School Buses, and then perform the getAbout
Columbia ribbon-cutting and plaque dedication at Stewart and Providence.
Several national advocacy organizations are sending their Policy Directors
to Columbia to participate in these events and make short speeches after
Bond. We will be coordinating an energetic media campaign. I urge you all
to make arrangements to join us for the ribbon-cutting (9:30am at
Stewart/Providence), and to bring as many friends and relatives as you can.

The ribbon-cutting is very significant. Senator Bond sealed the deal for
Columbia to receive the $22 million federal but has not said much about it
since. However, he now seems to be increasingly aware of the health,
environmental and economic benefits of active transportation. If a powerful
conservative Republican like Bond gets behind this issue, the changes in
funding, federal policy, and (eventually) the built environment could be
monumental.