Walking School Bus--first in Kansas

The KC Star covered the first walking school bus program in Kansas:
Someone cut a ribbon, a stilt walker rallied the crowd and tiny feet powered up the first walking school bus in Kansas.

The program at Pawnee Elementary School in Overland Park, part of a national effort to encourage exercise and curb obesity, involves groups of students walking to and from school each day escorted by adult volunteer "bus drivers." . . .

In 1969, almost half of all students walked to school, and only 5 percent suffered from childhood obesity.

Last year, just 16 percent walked — and childhood obesity was three times higher than 40 years ago. . . .

At Pawnee Elementary, 80 percent of students live within a 15-minute walk. But so many parents drive their children to and from school that traffic congestion, vehicle exhaust and parking problems build up, said Overland Park Council member Donna Owens, who was on a walking bus Monday.

Council member Terry Happer Scheier, also on a bus, said Overland Park officials hope to get the program into other schools and would like to see it spread far wider.

On the Missouri side of the state line, a handful of schools have such bus programs, and more are considering them, said Sharon Mohler, a parent who helped start one at St. Peter’s School four years ago.

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