October 4, 2007

A challenging trek
Middle school principal and staff walk eight miles as part of Walk to School Day and as a challenge for students to get fit.
By JORGE BARRIENTOS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Eight miles to go.

Principal Scott Bowman started the trek from his Lake Forest home under the starry dark skies early Wednesday, joined by his Rancho San Joaquin Middle School teachers and school staff.

It started with a challenge that got Bowman outside his home at five in the morning, ready for school wearing a bright green Hawaiian-style shirt, a baseball cap and tennis shoes.

The challenge: walk the eight miles to Rancho San Joaquin in University Park if enough students promised to walk or bike to school in celebration of international Walk to School Day Wednesday.

“The idea is to make fitness fun,” the 52-year-old, 200-plus pound, first-year principal said.

Students throughout the world participated in the celebration, which promotes, healthy living, safe walking and safe biking. It is the first year all schools in Irvine Unified participated in the annual event. The Irvine Public Schools Foundation sponsored Irvine’s participation to kick off its annual fund-raising campaign, which partly focuses on student health and education.

A main event took place at Northwood Community Park Wednesday morning and had about 400 people from the community joining students and school staff. Similar events took place throughout the county, including at Tustin Unified’s Heideman Elementary, which focused on safe streets.

Joking most of the way through, Bowman feigned trying to hop into cars stopping by, hugged a chilly street pole to cool off, and said the rest of the school day would be canceled after the long walk.

Four miles to go: Bowman cheered and gave high fives to his colleagues – including one dressed as Where’s Waldo holding pompoms, and another wearing long red and white striped socks – who walked with him over freeways and through busy morning traffic for the sake of healthy living.

“Halfway!” he said, slapping hands with everyone.

Bowman is no stranger to physical education – he’s been teaching it for 20-plus years. He started as a PE teacher at Rancho school and taught for 19 years, developing a student workout program there with weight training equipment and cardio machines.

For the past 12 years, he has also taught kinesiology at Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Long Beach. He frequently takes on the role of physical education consultant for other school districts wanting to get kids in shape. His answer to problems usually is, “Make exercise fun,” he said.

The end: After two hours and 17 minutes, Bowman and the other walkers were met with cheers from school staff after crossing a makeshift finish line.

“What was I thinking,” Bowman joked sweating through his Philadelphia Phillies cap.

Soon students followed, walking and riding bikes to campus from both directions on Michelson Drive. Some who lived on the other side of the freeway or too far away to walk were dropped off near the school and walked the rest of the way.
Seventh-graders Eric Hsu and Joshua Liu were dropped off at a nearby Ralph’s. They participated “just for fun,” Liu said. They usually get rides because school is too far from their Quail Hill home, and it’s not safe to walk, they said. But both plan to walk more to school.

“People need to stay fit these days,” Liu said.

Science and health instructors Alison Linden and Nancy Driscoll told students that walking to school also helps the environment.

“It’s healthy for us, and it’s healthy for the planet,” Linden said.

Bowman said students will see a video of his walk, and school staff will make it a point to tell students that staying fit by walking to school is not just a one day thing. And if the principal can do it, they can too.

“I’m not the tiniest person in the world,” he said. “It just forces me to be a role model for the kids. And it’s the little things, like the walk, they remember.”

But when asked by a colleague why he decided to walk from his home, Bowman joked:

“I wanted to wear shorts today to school.”