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Thursday, December 27, 2007
School marathon gets kids into habit of exercising
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She used to come home and start doing her homework right away.
Not anymore.
Now, most evenings when Gracie Whitney gets home from school, the third-grader grabs a book and hops on the treadmill.
Thank the marathon held this fall at her school, Mountain Park Elementary. Hundreds of students, and a half-dozen or so teachers and faculty, took part.
They had to walk or run a mile every day last month. The exercise had to take place outside of the regular classroom or physical education class. The kids could log time on the campus track during recess or after school. They also could use treadmills at home or take walks with family.
Those who completed 13 miles received a pedometer. T-shirts were given to those who completed 26 miles — a mile a day everyday.
Jeffrey Peterson, a P.E. instructor, came up with the voluntary marathon. He wanted to move kids toward fitness. He called me a few days before Christmas to share the results: More than 100 kids earned a T-shirt and right at 320 got pedometers at the Lilburn campus.
“A great success for the first try,” said Peterson, an avid jogger. “They all did it on their own. It was a matter of choice, and I was pleased with the number of families that participated with the kids. We’re going to make this a tradition.”
The whole idea for the marathon was to promote fitness, to make it an everyday affair. That’s one reason the kids had to do a mile a day, everyday, to win the T-shirt. Marathon rules disallowed participants to log several miles in one outing.
Peterson and Todd Kearney, the other P.E. instructor, stress to kids the importance of daily activity beyond organized sports. When it comes to exercising, Mountain Park in Lilburn is an anomaly: Students have P.E. every other day.
“We are lucky,” said principal Debbie Allred. “We’re a small school (648 students), so we can spend a little more time with that.”
It is hoped that the exercising will continue now that the marathon is over. Peterson thinks it will. He jogs in the nearby park and along neighborhood roads so kids can see him practice what he preaches. He’s noticed an uptick in the number of Mountain Park students and relatives out walking or jogging.
“We’ll see, after the holidays, if it continues,” he said.
For Gracie, who earned a marathon T-shirt, exercise has become routine.
Her mother, Wendy Stoner, told the 8-year-old she’d be rewarded with special activities, like a night of bowling, if she keeps it up. Gracie told me she planned to.
“I honestly think she is so used to doing it now that she doesn’t think about the reward,” said Stoner.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
Note: Rick Badie’s column will resume Jan.8.
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