Walk to School

There are some remote areas in the world where kids HAVE TO walk miles to school. And there are some places where kids HAVE TO be encouraged to walk to school! Coming to the point, in my son's school they have walk to school days, may be three or four days in a year. Kids are so happy to walk to school that day. Those living far from school park their vehicles somewhere near and then walk to school, even if that's just 50 feet!!! They get a sticker and some small gift like a pencil, bookmark etc. Its every kid's curiosity and enthusiasm to see which class wins in each grade, by having the most number of kids that walked to school. Kids come with pedometers to see the number of steps they've taken. Well, what made me post this here today is a small twist to the event. Four schools are competing today and the school which wins will win a golden sneaker award. And the highlight is the principals of the losing schools are going to wear the winning school's T-shirt for a day!!!! And my God, you should see the spirit of the kids. They were talking about walking to school and making their school win so that the other schools' principals wear their school's t-shirt. And today it was amazing to see more kids walking to school than the other walk to school days! There were only a handful of cars in the car pool!! I was eagerly waiting to know the result!!!
And my son's class had a tie with another class in his grade. He is talking about having another competition to break the tie. He is so very excited! And he says, today another school won by a small margin, but his school will catch up next time!! Kudos for the spirit!!