It was a sight to see — a trail of almost 40 children on Wednesday walking with their parents and teachers from the Hatch Bridge to Lakeview Elementary School in Albert Lea.

Though the weather started out a little drizzly, by the time the children had arrived at the bridge, the rain had stopped and the kids were thrilled to proceed.

Some wore ponchos and others carried umbrellas, as they walked from Hatch Bridge, around Fountain Lake, past Monkey Island and eventually to the school.

On the eve of the AARP/Blue Zones Vitality project, the children — deemed a walking school bus — showed their excitement to exercise, socialize and simply have fun.

They were just one of several walking school buses that parents and community leaders planned for Wednesday as part of a new initiative for the schoolchildren in the city.

At Lakeview Elementary, there were at least two walking school buses, the Lakeview Locomotive and the Park Avenue Express, and others could be seen around town at some of the other schools, too.

A walking school bus, also known as a group of children walking to school with one or more adults, can be as informal as two families taking turns walking their children to school to as structured as a route with meeting points, a timetable and a regularly rotated schedule of trained volunteers.

The Lakeview Locomotive was the latter.

As the children walked, they carried a sign encouraging passers-by to honk their horns. Many drivers did just that, and the children cheered.

Mother Beth Doyle, who was walking with her kindergartner and 1-year-old baby, said she never realized how many kids that go to Lakeview live in the same area.

Doyle said the group plans to walk to school every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for now.

“The kids are so excited,” she said. “It’s something they’re trying to get the whole community involved in.”

Lakeview Elementary School Principal Jean Jordan, who walked with the Lakeview Locomotive, said she is supportive of the walking school bus initiative.

“I think it’s great,” Jordan said. “It’s a very nice way to start the day, it really is.”

Nine-year-old Camryn Keyeski, said she enjoyed walking to school because it gave her good exercise.

“A lot of kids now don’t walk to school,” she said.

Walking nearby was 9-year-old Ryan Nelson.

He said he’s always wanted to walk to school, but his parents didn’t have anyone for him to walk with.

“Now I have someone to walk with,” Nelson said.

Kristin Heinz, one of the major organizers of Lakeview Elementary’s walking school buses, said the kickoff of the initiative went well, despite questionable weather.

“I was nervous about the weather, but they were troopers,” Heinz said.

To get everything organized, a neighborhood meeting was scheduled, when parents talked about schedules and chaperones.

She said the children gain many benefits from walking to school, including getting a social connection, getting exercise and mostly just having fun. It helps them not get so reliant on the car.

Though the Lakeview Locomotive chaperones included mostly parents and teachers, the Park Avenue Express also had some retirees as well.

One of those retirees, Jane Enger, 71, said she already walks her two grandchildren to school every day.

“They love walking,” Enger said. “It just wakes them up in the morning. They get to visit with the other kids along the path, and I get to say hi to neighbors, too.

“And it keeps me in shape, too,” she added.

She hoped to be walking with the larger group the rest of the school year.

At the end of the walk to the school, the students were greeted with bananas and water donated by Kwik Trip and Culligan, along with stickers.