Emerson Olympics

Each year at JT’s school, they hold a fitness day fundraiser. The purpose is obviously twofold. To raise money and to teach the importance of fitness. You may have heard of, donated to or attended something similar… think jog-a-thon, trike-a-thon etc. 

One of my gals decided she wanted to chair the even this year and early on, health and fitness being high on my importance list, volunteered to assist. She had an amazing theme picked out, the Emerson Olympics. With the summer games just having passed in London, Olympics were still fresh on everyone’s mind so it really gave the kids something to relate to. We have a few olympian parents and members in our community. She was able to reach out to them and they agreed to speak to our students about the importance of fitness and working hard in school. We had an opening ceremony, a lighting of the torch, and olympians speak to our kids. Each class was assigned a country, given a flag and their donation packets. They were pumped.

It was a great day and it was such a treat hearing the kids talk to their parents after school and tell them what a good experience it was. We ended up raising $17,000 for our school! Isn’t that crazy awesome?!

A month of collecting pledges and donations went by and before we knew it, our games were upon us. Thursday morning, bright and early at 6am, there we were to decorate and transform our playground for the kids.

The lunch benches became the olympic village, banners and streamers hung and floated on wind. Flags dotted the rooftop. The grassy area was strung with banners and flags and the eight 8’ balance beams our Rock Steady Guys built for me were placed in the center. The whole playground was divided into 9 stations. #1 Cardio Warmup, #2 100 yard dash, #3 arm ropes and jump ropes, #4 hula hoops, #5 shot put, #6 kick a goal, #7 centipede run, #8 monkey bars, #9 balance beam. Then they ran around the front of the school to the finish line where they received medals and took a class picture with the rest of their country at our awesomely decorated backdrop/handball medal podium. 

I was stationed to take photos all day which was tons of fun. Mr. B and HeaBug came and helped all day long. Like all day. Love them so much. He spent this time after spending the majority of February traveling for work. I was so glad to have his company and he was just the best. He went and got us John’s for lunch (Our favorite local burger spot) and just spent the whole day being amazingly supportive. (And handsome, he’s so good at that!).