Today is International Walk and Bike to School Day.

Established in 1997 in the United States by the Partnership for a Walkable America, Walk and Bike to School Day began as a simple idea: to get children, parents, school and local officials walking to school together on a designated day. It reminds people of the joy of walking to school, the health benefits of regular daily activity and the need for safe places to walk and bike. It also raises awareness of the need to create safer routes for walking and bicycling and emphasizes the importance of issues such as increasing physical activity among children, pedestrian and bicycle safety, traffic congestion and concern for the environment.

To celebrate this day locally, the Statewide Health Improvement Program in Freeborn County in partnership with the Blue Zones Project of Albert Lea, created and distributed maps to parents of students in each of the Albert Lea elementary schools as well as the middle school. The maps showcase all the possible walking and biking routes to the schools and where sidewalks are available.

We encourage parents to check out these maps and come up with a game plan with your children about the safest ways for them to get to their schools on foot or by bike. Children learn about being active most often from their parents.

We hope this day can also be a time to emphasize the need for safer neighborhoods in our community and for the installation of more sidewalks.

We applaud the city of Albert Lea for the extra emphasis placed in recent years on adding sidewalks during neighborhood reconstruction and overlay projects, and we encourage city leadership to continue to make this a priority in the future. While much has been accomplished, much still needs to be done.

As we encourage our children and our community as a whole to be more active, we must make sure they are protected in the process.

In addition to sidewalks, drivers must make an extra effort to pay attention to children or others who may be riding their bicycles or walking. In turn, parents must start early educating their children on pedestrian and bicycle safety.