Hope at a Community Level?

This morning I went out for one of my regular runs - a six miler with a few hills. Where we are in Brambleton it is great for running if you want to do 3-5 miles as you can vary it up a bit but for me to go beyond 5 miles I need to connect to some of the other communities around me so I will use the roads that connect into Brambleton to find my way into Broadlands, Dolomite Hills and Loudoun Valley. When I want to do some hills it is usually Dolomite or Broadlands as it has Croson, Ridgeway and Truro Parish where I can run hills wither early or late in a run.

This morning I did my regular 6 miler which takes me up Croson, down Claiborne and a loop through Ridgeway/Stone Hollow. Some hills and a nice safe area to run in. This morning I even saw an old friend, Mark Burns, that I used to work with and we also trained together at early morning karate classes. What I found really nice as I ran around Ridgeway was the number of kids that were walking to school. Some were walking with their parents, others in good groups but it was amazing at how many elementary aged kids that were walking to school. Most of these kids were walking at least a third of a mile, some may actually be doing almost a mile (I think that would be the maximum given the community layout). Now I do not know if it was the kids deciding themselves to do this or the parents encouraging them but given the parents I saw walking I think there may have been some parent involvement and if so then I say that is FABULOUS. We need more parents encouraging kids to get out and do things like walk to school or the grocery store, especially with a community/area like Broadlands where that is possible. Ridgeway is a bit more unique in that there is largely only local traffic through most of it but communities like Broadlands and Brmbleton have done a good job in laying out sidewalks and paths that allow/encourage walking and I hope more parents encourage it.

Maybe there is hope for a healthy generation of kids - even when they are so easily distracted by video games and iPhones - but it takes a community approach - both to build the resources to encourage activity but also to have parents involved to encourage and protect when needed.

Congratulations to those parents at Mill Run and I hope that carries over to Eagle Ridge.