King County Executive Dow Constantine came to Greenbridge near White Center on Friday, Oct. 29 to take part in the 'Walking School Bus' from Greenbridge at Eastbridge Park to White Center Heights Elementary at 10015 6th Ave s.w.

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Maggie Anderson, site person for the King County Health and Fitness Initiative at the school contacted the Executive's office since he was unable to attend an earlier event, and requested his attendance.

Approximately 75 kids from the school joined Constantine, with their parents, and others to emphasize both fitness and safety.

Constantine said, "Today we're celebrating our effort to make it easier for kids to walk to school by walking to White Center Heights Elementary. It's become harder and harder for kids to walk safely to school because of traffic and the way we've built our communities, so we're going to reverse that. We're going to make sure that we're building communities that make it possible for kids to get more exercise, to be healthier and to walk to school."

Reflecting on his own school days he said, "When I was a kid I was able to walk to my own elementary school, there was a lot less traffic then but we think kids today ought to have that same opportunity (...) this is about health and quality of life."

Dave Darling, Principal at the school was along for the walk and pointed out that last year, a first grade student was hit by a car on 8th Avenue South, "right in front of our school. It was in the morning while he was coming to school (...) I'm worried about our kids all the time. 8th Avenue is a pretty busy street."