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      Students at Crestview Elementary School in Boulder, Colo., spent the last
      national walk day writing letters to their public-works director because
      they could not participate. The community lacked sidewalks. But that is
      expected to change soon.

      Baker's Chapel Elementary School, in an industrial neighborhood of
      Greenville, S.C., with no sidewalks, did not want to encourage students to
      travel to and from school by foot. Instead, it got a corporate sponsor to
      help build a 54-ton asphalt track on school grounds - now used every day
      by students, faculty and staff.

      But the United States trails several other nations in mobilizing
      walk-to-school efforts. In the United Kingdom, local governments are
      required to prepare strategies for reducing the number of cars and
      accidents on the school journey.

      Altering walking habits is not something that happens quickly - as Susan
      Beeching, an Atlanta mother, found out.

      Wearing a whistle around her neck to alert inattentive drivers, Beeching
      walks five children, including two of her own, to Mary Lin Elementary
      School most mornings. The school staged a walk-to-school day last fall,
      she said, but it has been hard to maintain the enthusiasm. She hears many
      excuses from other parents: "I am late for work. I can't get the kids up.
      We are in a hurry."

      Beeching said her children liked to walk, and the round-trip means she
      squeezes 40 minutes of exercise into her busy day as a banker.
      Proponents believe such simple pleasures will be selling points for
      reviving the walk to school.

      "It's difficult to refute the potential benefit of moving an entire
      generation from place to place with their feet," Killingsworth said.

      Marian Uhlman's e-mail is [email protected]

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