Fort Huachuca, Arizona - Students and employees all over Fort Huachuca set out a little earlier on the morning of March 6 to participate in the Bike and Walk to School Day.
"This is the first time it happened [here], and it was a garrison-sponsored event that we coordinated with the Fort Huachuca Accommodation School District, just to promote walkability and bikeabilty to school," said Erin Schnitger, school liaison officer.
"The event was twofold. One, to promote health and wellness with our families, trying to urge them to do those small things in the morning. Like make sure their child has breakfast, walk them to school or encourage them to bike to school, just kind of initiate that activity level right from the get-go," Schnitget added.
While Schnitger was taking survey cards from the children who participated at Colonel Smith Middle School, she noticed most of the cards had the 'no' box checked for eating breakfast that morning.
"The biggest thing is I am trying to push right now is a breakfast initiative on the installation and a health and wellness focus both in our schools and in our community," she said. "So seeing that many boxes checked 'no' for breakfast terrifies me because we are seeing it hinder our performance in our school and in our workplace, so there's a lack of education on how important it is to get something in your body."
The second reason the event was put on was to gauge the community's access to walking and biking to school and other hindering factors. Many workers and students live off post and it is not feasible for them to bike or walk.
In an effort to get those with such circumstances to participate on March 6, three special parking lots were set up where families could park and then walk/bike about a half mile to their school.
"Most of them that walked or biked to school said they felt more energized and more awake when they got to school. So we know that there are great benefits to those health initiatives. It's just figuring out how to get families, how to push them to do that," she said.
One parent, Missi Hayes, who walked with her son to Colonel Johnston Elementary School, said, "He is normally a bus rider because we live far and so having the opportunity to drop and walk shorter distances, he wouldn't be able to make it otherwise. We just thought it was a great event and physical activity is important for our kids."
Another parent whose daughter walks every day, Sgt. Jacob McBride, 309th Military Intelligence Battalion, said, "I did it when I was a kid, I feel like it builds character."
Other hindering factors Schnitger thinks could play a role are not having enough walking paths, parents' schedules and possibly not enough bike parking. The survey cards that were distributed asked questions to help identify such issues.
"We need the public to identify it as well, cause then we know we are supporting the needs of our area," Schnitger said. "This was a nice way to gauge what we can improve on so hopefully we can support those initiatives a little bit more in the future."
One major thing Schnitger noted was how many students at Smith said they felt more awake after biking and walking to school.
"That one change, how much more awake the kids felt, how much more active they felt how much more alert they felt, how much more these families and employees would have felt as well so I'm hoping that message gets through a little bit that just those small changes that can affect your whole day are probably going to affect it in a positive way," she concluded.
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