By

Amy Petersilie,   Alternative Learning Center - Rochester

Play:

Community Playtime – It’s Good for Everyone

Topics:

Community Involvement, Physical Activity Participation,  Teamwork

Last year a group of 20 students wanted to join me in one of my obstacle runs. We are very fortunate that we had a run on September 17th here in Rochester. The run was to support Veterans but when I contacted them to see if we could work out a discount (as my students would really struggle to pay $60 per runner) they were more than happy to donate 20 race registrations for us. Our goal was to get involved in our community fitness activities and to offer a different opportunity to our students. Students signed up with me, filled out the registration information. I registered each student online and were set to go. When it came closer to race day, students needed to have the wavier for the run filled out by a parent/guardian and have a form of ID to show at packet pickup. On the morning of September 17th we met at the race site. It was very exciting but very nerve racking as well. The students were amazing and pushed themselves very hard going into ice baths, over huge hay bales, running up and down muddy hills, jumping off a 10 foot platform into water and much more. We even had 3 students finish in the top 7 of our heat… AMAZING!

How did you accomplish your goals?

We accomplished our goals by offering a community activity for all students no matter their fitness levels and for free. All interested students had the opportunity to sign up.

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

The greatest challenges we faced were the cold weather the morning of the race and transportation. In hindsight, I wish we would have been able to meet all the students in a central local and brought them all out to race site. It was pretty far out of town and for those who rely only on city transportation, it was very difficult for them to find their way out to join us.