Tuckahoe students celebrate feet during Walk to School Day

School buses were pulling up empty yesterday at Tuckahoe Elementary School, and people couldn't have been prouder.

To celebrate International Walk to School Day, which promotes healthy communities, more than 90 percent of the school's 665 students used foot power to get to class yesterday. According to Muriel Brinkley, an assistant principal, only 62 children rode school buses, which usually transport 80 percent to 90 percent of the school population.

For some of the walkers, it was just another day on the new pathway that parallels Forest Avenue between the University Heights neighborhood and the school. Others made a special effort to join the throng.

Steven Witmer drove his daughters, Katherine, 10, and Lauren, 5, across Patterson Avenue to Trinity United Methodist Church and walked from there. Lauren, clutching a pink and purple stuffed puppy, insisted that her dad walk all the way to the door before she turned it over with a hug.

Alan and Suzanne Shaia said they usually walk two or three times a week with sons Sam, 6, and Joseph, 8. Daughter Erin, 2, came along in a stroller as they walked down University Boulevard.

"It's like we have more time to run," Joe said about walking to school. He doesn't get tired, though. "I still save some energy for recess."

Noelle Watson spearheaded the first Walk to School Day at Tuckahoe last year and got about 80 percent participation.

"It's been incredible to me," Watson said. She lives about a third of a mile from school on Uni versity Boulevard. Her husband, David Wojahn, joined the procession yesterday with 7-year-old twins Luke and Jake Wojahn

"I was walking my own two kids to school. It was hard," Watson said. "Traffic was not good. It was not a clear path. As I met other walkers and families, we got together and thought we could benefit from a sidewalk."

The University Heights Neighborhood Association took up the cause, and Henrico County agreed to improve the walking path with a finely crushed gravel surface held in place by wooden planks at the edges. Not only was it less expensive than a sidewalk -- $38,000 instead of $750,000, according to Henrico Public Works Director Tim Foster -- it preserved the trees that give the busy, two-lane road its character.

The county also marked a crosswalk on Forest at University Boulevard.

"With the crosswalk, people stop," Watson said. "I think a lot more neighbors are walking now than they did before. We walk on a daily basis. It's been wonderful to meet neighbors."

Other schools that participated in Walk to School Day included Ridge Elementary School in Henrico and Watkins Elementary School in Midlothian.

Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or .