By MAGGIE MCMURRAY
Moapa Valley Progress
Ute Perkins Elementary students found a great way to celebrate heart health while helping those who are not so lucky at the same time. For the first time in many years, Perkins students participated in the American Heart Association’s Jump Rope for Heart.
Perkins PE teacher Erin Leavitt used the event to help educate her students about heart health and the importance that exercise and proper diet plays in staying healthy, while also teaching them about kids who are not so lucky.
“We decided to participate this year because we have been focusing on exercise recently and this fit in well with our program,” Leavitt said. “We decided to do it in February because February is National Heart Month. We have spent the month focusing on what we need to do to be healthy and have a strong heart. We also talked about what we can do to give back to kids who aren’t as lucky as we are and need help. It has been a positive experience for the kids.”
Students were encouraged to go out into the community and gather donations, 100% of which will go to the American Heart Association. Fifth grader Kevyn Rhude used the opportunity to challenge those around her to improve at least one aspect of their lives.
“I got a lot of donations and the people I talked to were even really friendly about it,” Rhude said. “Everywhere I went I challenged them to do one thing to get healthier. If they couldn’t think of something to do to improve their health I gave them options like walking for 60 minutes a day or eating healthier.”
Leavitt was pleased with how much her students were able to collect for AHA. “Our goal as a school was $500 and we didn’t quite get there, but we did collect over $400 dollars which is great for our first year,” she said. “It shows how hard the students worked, as well as how generous our community can be.”
Every student in the school was entered into a drawing for one of many prizes, but students who collected donations were also given extra entries.
The payoff for the students came on Wednesday, Feb. 22, when they got to participate in the Jump Rope for Heart event at their school.
To handle the numbers, Leavitt set up several stations through which students could rotate. There were stations where students jumped rope individually, of course; but they also had stations where they used a long rope for “Double Dutch”, a hula hoop station, a hopscotch station, and a station where they got to play tag.
While the kids were having fun, Leavitt drew names for students to come up and choose from an array of prizes donated by the AHA and Fire Up Your Feet. “We had a lot of prizes because we really wanted to reward the students for their efforts,” Leavitt said. “I drew about four names every five minutes so it kept us pretty busy. About half the kids in the school ended up winning something.”
The kids really enjoyed the program and the event. Sara Doty said that she had learned a lot from the experience that will help her be healthier. “I learned that if you have a little of everything off your healthy eating chart every day and exercise a little, you’ll stay healthy as long as you don’t eat too much sodium or take drugs,” Doty said.
