WNCC softball players walk to school with Northfield Elementary students during International Walk to School Day

More photos of the event located at http://wncccougars.smugmug.com/2010-11-Cougars-in-the/Softball-and-Northfield-Walk/14072256_gJs3m#1036393856_Ls8Y9

The Western Nebraska Community College softball team participated in International Walk to School Day by walking to school with youngsters from Northfield Elementary in Gering early Wednesday morning.

“It was a fun experience,” freshman Mariah Faifer of Albuquerque, N.M., said. “The kid’s excitement and conversations of sweet nothings made my day.”

The Cougar players walked with the students from three different locations around the school. Bused students were dropped off on Country Club road, while other students were met by a school official and Cougar softball players about two or three blocks from school.

The softball players said it was worth getting up by 7 a.m. and participating in a community event such as this.

“It was a lot of fun and the kids were so freakin’ adorable,” Sarah Ward-Hadden, a freshman from Hayward, Calif., said. “I think it helps and betters the community when we work or help the younger kids. The kids had fun, too.”

International Walk to School Day was founded in 1997 as a way to bring community leaders and children together to build awareness for communities. The event used to be a one-day event, the first Wednesday of October, but lately the event has grown to a month-long celebration. Last year, students and parents from over 3,500 U.S. schools joined millions of Walk to School Day and Month participants worldwide.

Northfield and Lincoln Elementary in Gering, as well as St. Agnes in Scottsbluff registered to take part in the Walk to School Day. The Northfield walk was organized by Northfield physical education instructor Jennifer Schwartz.

Gering mayor Susan Weideman also walked to school with the youngsters, and afterwards, proclaimed October as Walk to School Month. Each student that walked to school was also presented a pair of shoe laces.

Schwartz said that every Wednesday in October will be Walk to School Day at Northfield Elementary.

Jocely Stubbs, Ward-Hadden and Faifer said that they never experienced anything like this in grade school.

“My mom wouldn’t let me walk to school,” Ward-Hadden said. “She said it was too dangerous.”

Faifer said she walked to school a few times, but nothing like she encountered Wednesday morning with groups of people.

“I walked to school a few times when I was in elementary school, but never with a group of people, or for any cause like this,” she said.

Stubbs, a freshman from Roosevelt, Utah, said this was not only was beneficial for the youngsters, but also for the players as well.

“I think that being involved in the community is important for both -- us softball players and the community,” she said. “This helps us get to know everyone who lives here in Scottsbluff.”

Faifer agrees.

“When you work with kids and get involved in the community, there is a sense of neighborly love,” she said. “You learn to appreciate the people who surround you.”