Some East Elementary School students spent Thursday morning doing what their principal said he did not have a chance to do when he was their age - walking to school.
East Elementary Principal Ryan Day told his students as they walked together from the corner of Capitol Avenue and Riverside Drive that walking to school was not an option for him because he lived in the country.
"I think I would've felt more part of the community," Day said of what being able to walk to school would have meant for him - being able to see where friends lived, for example.
Day guessed 40-50 of his approximately 300 students walk to school on a typical day.
Thursday was more than a typical day, though - Jefferson City Public Schools celebrated a weather-delayed Walk to School Day, which had been scheduled for last week as part of National Walk to School Day on Oct. 10.
Thorpe Gordon and South elementary schools also participated Thursday. Thorpe Gordon incorporated its walk into the school's regularly scheduled walking school bus program, started in April as a way for children to be more active, JCPS Director of Communications Ryan Burns said.
Thorpe Gordon, East, South and Callaway Hills elementary schools are part of the Missouri Foundation for Health's Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities five-year initiative to less childhood obesity. This school year is the fourth year.
East Elementary is trying to figure out days when it could regularly schedule walks to schools, Day said.
"Doing it as a group is important for safety," JCPS Superintendent Larry Linthacum said Thursday on the walk to East, as well as being good for exercise and community-building.