FAIRHOPE – Children played on the lawn, chasing each other in the early morning until, shortly after 7 a.m., the call went out to line up.
After a six-month interruption for COVID-19, Fairhope’s Walking School Bus resumed on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
As students had for the last seven years, they took their places in the line. Now, they had additional instructions, masks if they were older than 7 and making sure they were socially distanced from other groups.
“We’ve always tried to keep them together in the past,” Charlene Lee, director of the Walking School Bus, said. “Now, we have to remind them to stay apart. It’s so unnatural for children to keep distance.”
The program began its eighth year with about 40 children and an escort of parents, teachers and volunteers, setting off from the assembly point at Coastal Alabama Community College to Fairhope West Elementary School, a distance of about six-tenths of a mile.
Fourth-grader Avery Huffty has been walking in the program since she began kindergarten.
“I like it,” she said. “It gives me a chance to see my friends and be with them. This is the first time I’ve seen them since last year.”
This year, her sister, Emme, will join the group as a kindergartener. Asked if she was looking forward to the walk, Emme nodded. “I like it,” she said.
“It’s a great program,” their mother, Kim Huffty, said. “It gives the kids a chance to get together and play before school and then walk together and burn off some of that energy, some of that sugar from breakfast cereal.”
While school began on Aug. 12, Tuesday, organizers waited to restart the Walking School Bus program.
“There were so many uncertainties about what the COVID requirements were going to be that we wanted really wanted to wait to see,” Lee said. “The whole thing is you don’t want to spread the virus. You want to be cognizant of the fact that we’re still in a pandemic, so the school had a lot of stuff to work out.”
Lee said that with the program shut down since school stopped in March, she was pleased that about 40 children had signed up to walk the first day.
“I can’t believe this much turnout,” Lee said. “This is a little bit higher than I expected.”
She said the program helps children prepare for a day in school.
“It’s just such a calming way for kids to start school,” she said. “I think they’re ready to sit down. The walk just gets them ready for an atmosphere of learning.”
The program, which was organized by the Baldwin County Trailblazers, began as a one-day participation in International Walk to School Day. That was popular enough that the walk was expanded and became a daily event.
Every morning, students line up for the walk to school. The program has also been expanded to Fairhope East Elementary.
Lee said teachers and other education officials have helped the program grow.
“The school has been such an incredible partner,” Lee said. We have three teachers that walk with every day. That’s just been of enormous value.”
