Fifth-grader Marlon Olazabal walks to Twin Lakes Elementary School almost every day, usually with friends.

``Walking is fun because you can exercise,'' said Marlon, wearing a tall ``iWalk'' crown. ``But you have to always look left, right, left before you walk across the street.''

He and hundreds of classmates took part Wednesday in Walk Our Children to School Day, a program promoting safe walking and bicycling.

Elected officials, police officers, teachers and school administrators led students in an early morning march around Twin Lakes' main building, at 6735 W. Fifth Place in Hialeah. The drumline from Hialeah Miami Lakes Senior High's marching band helped the marchers stay on tempo.

The event was one of about a dozen that took place in South Florida and more than 5,000 nationwide as a part of the International Walk to School Program. The program, begun 12 years ago at a Chicago school, now includes more than 40 countries. Four million people from countries like Chile, Taiwan, Fiji, Ghana and Portugal were expected to participate in walk-to-school events this month.

LOCAL PROGRAMS

A number of area schools, including Oak Grove Elementary in North Miami Beach, Morningside Elementary in Miami and Hialeah Gardens Elementary, also participated in Walk Our Children to School Day, encouraging parents to share time and safety tips with their children during a stroll to school.

WalkSafe, a pedestrian safety program started by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in 2001, held its annual safety event Wednesday at Irving and Beatrice Peskoe Elementary in Homestead.

In anticipation of the event, students learned a skit, did a practice walk across the street and designed safety posters to spread the word to other students.

``With the posters, they try to teach programs they've learned to others,'' said Christine Stinson, program coordinator for WalkSafe. ``If they can teach it to somebody else, then we know they've learned it.''

Stinson said the WalkSafe curriculum, used by teachers all over Miami-Dade County, has helped to reduce the number of child pedestrian injuries in the county by 41 percent since 2001.

School Board Member Perla Tabares Hantman, who has sponsored this event for the past decade, touted walking to school as a great way to fight pollution and combat obesity.

But in order to be effective, she said, it has to be done safely.

``I always walk with the children, every year,'' she said. ``I can be sure we will all walk away with lasting memories of safe walking skills which we will put to use not only today but for the rest of our lives.''

DISTRICT PRIORITY

After the march around Twin Lakes, students filed into the cafeteria to hear speeches, songs and performances about pedestrian and biker safety.

They heard words from Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and Twin Lakes principal Maria Isabel de Leon, listened to kindergartners sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Traffic Light and watched fifth-graders perform a skit explaining the purpose of various street signs.

Carvalho, who watched the performances from the front row, said the students were showing the ability to make the right decisions on the street and in life.

``Safety is the district's first priority,'' he told The Miami Herald.

De Leon, the school principal, said she hopes the move toward safer sidewalks and crosswalks will lead to safer highways in the future.

``These students,'' she said, ``will be the safe drivers and the policemen in the future helping to keep our community safe.''

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@