Safe Routes to School Encourage Healthy Lifestyles for Youth, Coordinators Say
By Josh Mitchell
Editor
River Mississippi News
MINNESOTA — National Walk, Bike & Roll to School Day is Wednesday.
The National Center for Safe Routes to School coordinates the event, which encourages active youth lifestyles through school commutes. This can help the U.S. population fight health problems such as obesity and heart disease, event coordinators say.
In the River Mississippi News 10-state, territory, Minnesota has the most registered events for Wednesday with 161, according to the walkbiketoschool.org national map.
Minnesota safe routes to school officials say children “can bike or walk to school directly from home, join a ‘walking school bus’ a few blocks from school, or have their parents drop them off a few blocks away so they can get the experience of pedaling to school with their friends.”
Mental health can also be improved from this type of physical exertion, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
“We know students do better in school when they add physical activities to their day,” Kelly Corbin, MnDOT Safe Routes to School coordinator, said in a news release. “This event promotes safety skills that students can use throughout their lives.”
