Take a Hike: It's International Walk to School Day

Hundreds of students from three of town's four elementary schools are foregoing the morning trip in the family's SUV today, Wednesday, Oct. 9, and will be walking to school as Belmont join students from around the globe in celebrating International Walk to School Day.

In coordination with Massachusetts Safe Routes to School program, the event will begin at 8 a.m. (and a little before) with kids, parents and community leaders meeting on street corners throughout Belmont and walking together to the Burbank, Butler and Wellington elementary schools. The Winn Brook had to skip this year due to construction of the new Joey's Park going on near by.

Walkers will arrive at the schools between 8:20 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. for a meet and greet and special prizes.

For those students who wish to walk to the Wellington Elementary School today, here are the locations and times for the groups and the celebrity and staff walking leaders.

Maggie Roler and Colleen McBride

2nd grade teachers

• 8 a.m. Payson Road and Common Street

Meaghan Clow, 3rd Grade Teacher and Officer Melissa O’Connor, Belmont Police

• 8 a.m. Oakley and Payson roads

Mr. 'S' - Richard Samaria, retired PE teacher, and Aimee Doherty, current PE teacher.

Sheila Walsh, guidance counselor, and Ann Walsh, Kindergarten Teacher

Mina Vahedi and Lindsay DeBello, Kindergarten teachers

Joanna Kaselis Tzouvelis, Editor, and Christa Lesiczka, 3rd Grade teacher.

Regina Kalajian, Art teacher, and Andy Rojas, Belmont selectman.

Sgt. Benjamin Mailhot, Belmont Police, and David Hamer, Belmont Second Soccer

Amy Spangler, Wellington Principal, and Denise Shaver, Head Children’s Librarian, Belmont Public Library

In the U.S., International Walk to School Day is expected to include 6,500 schools from the 50 states. Walkers from the U.S. will join children and adults in more than 40 countries from around the world.

The mission of Walk to School events work is to create safer routes for walking and bicycling and emphasize the importance increasing physical activity among children, pedestrian safety, traffic congestion, concern for the environment and building connections between families, schools and the broader community.

The event is being organized by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program. There are more than 300 elementary and middle schools in 111 communities across the state working with Safe Routes to School, organizing activities and events to encourage students to walk and bicycle to school.