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"Safe Routes to School" Grant Aims to Encourage Barnum Kids to Walk, Bike to School

Michael Newton/Flickr

Despite the sad stories we all heard about parents and grandparents who had to walk to school - uphill both ways and in a blizzard - back when kids walked or biked to school, they were a lot better off.

Concerned about everything from childhood obesity to  air quality, the federal government funded the Safe Routes to School program eleven years ago.

Working with community partners like the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission, the program can help schools like Barnum Elementary get the sidewalks they need to make it easier for eeryone in the neighborhood to get around.

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.