weight, their minds were changed on Friday by the "pied piper of American walking''.

Mr. Robert Sweetgall walked away from his $50,000-a-year job as a chemical engineer at DuPont 11 years ago and onto the highways of the United States.

With just a money belt around his waist, the clothing on his back, and a pair of comfortable shoes, Mr. Sweetgall set out from his home state of New York.

At a pace of three-and-a-half miles an hour, he walked across the entire country -- about 11,200 miles.

He told students, at Dellwood and other schools he visited, he slept under Christmas trees with pets and wherever he was allowed to lay his head during the memorable walk.

Wearing out three pairs of shoes covering 30 to 40 miles a day, Mr. Sweetgall said: "I walked in temperatures of 80 to 90 degrees and in the winter in temperatures of zero degrees.

"One day in the state of Washington it got to 30 below.'' That was just his first of seven walks across the US.

But Mr. Sweetgall, who is in Bermuda as a guest of the Health Department which has designated February as Heart Month, said he did not just carry out such adventures to make the Guinness Book of World Records.

The former high school valedictorian whose hunger for food matched his hunger for knowledge, said his actions were prompted by the fact that most of his family died from heart disease.

"I wanted to show Americans that they did not have to die from heart disease,'' he said.

"Walking is something we can all do. It helps our bones and heart and helps to reduce fat.'' Mr. Sweetgall said both running and walking were good exercises for the heart.

But, he said, walking put less stress on the body and was something that most people could do at any age.

He said walking was just one step toward a healthy lifestyle.

Mr. Sweetgall also warned the students to be careful about what they eat.

"When we watch too much television and play too many video games and sit and eat too much potato chips and fries, we store fat.'' Showing students a plastic model of a pound of fat, Mr. Sweetgall said: "It is important that we eat foods that are not too much fat and we get exercise''.

He also pointed out, to the students' amazement, that one would have to walk the length of a soccer field to burn off calories from one M&M candy or a potato chip.

To work off calories of a Big Mac, he added, would require walking the length of 110 soccer fields.

Noting that he cut the monotony of walking along highways by looking for coins along the way, Mr. Sweetgall said he collected $182 this way.

And he said when he completed his walk, tests showed that his heart was stronger than when he started.

"The more you exercise, without overdoing it, the stronger your heart is going to get and you will be fitter too,'' Mr. Sweetgall told the students.

He also showed a slide of students from Fort Rivers School in Massachusetts who walked across the state in four days.

One of the students, 11-year-old Dorith Peleg, enjoyed it so much that she wrote a book called "Road Scholars'' about the trip, Mr. Sweetgall added.

The motivational speaker also led walkers from Astwood Park on South Shore Road, Warwick on Saturday.

TAKING WALKING TO HEART -- "Pied piper of American walking'' Mr. Robert Sweetgall explains to Dellwood's Primary Four students the importance of walking to their health.