Around 20 students from Mark Twain Elementary School walked from home to school instead of taking the bus two weeks ago.

Federal Way City Councilman Martin Moore, Blitz from the Seahawks and parents came to walk alongside the students.

The students agreed to participate in a four-year study called Walking School Bus done by Seattle Children’s Research Institute. The purpose of the study is to learn about parent’s attitudes about their children walking to school and to address injury and obesity prevention in children, explained Alan Waite, clinic research associate at Seattle Children’s.

Walking School Bus has gained popularity in various parts of the nation and worldwide. They are also an integral part of Safe Routes to School Programs and are endorsed by city, state, federal and health authorities.

“Walking School Bus has been around for a while and normally they are a volunteer run version of a carpool, where parents have worked out having a group of people walk kids to school and walk them home at end of the day,” Waite said. “Most of these programs are in higher economic schools, so we wanted to also study how these programs could work at Title 1 schools where children are from low income homes.”

Seattle Children’s plans to conduct the Walking School Bus every day at Mark Twain until the end of the year. They are also planning to start it at Lake Grove, Valhalla and Olympic View Elementary.

“We reached out to ask Federal Way Public Schools to partner with us because we’d worked with Todd Beamer High School in the past and had a great experience with them,” Waite said.

The students seemed glad to participate in the study that morning.

“They seemed excited, it was a cold, but sunny day,” He said. “We hope it will be a positive activity for the kids and it will make them want to be healthier and more active as well.”

Seattle Children’s staff defined stops the children will make on their morning route each day, with the help of parent and Seattle Children’s volunteers.

Lake Grove Elementary School started their Walking School Bus two weeks ago.