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RANCHO RUNNING CLUB
Project Fit
This is not work, it is fun. -Bret Dupuis |
FROM BRET DUPUIS AND DAVE HINDS Four months ago, a quarter-mile track was precisely measured via GPS and cut into the Rancho Las Positas Elementary school field. The next morning the first steps were run on the track. 52,000 laps and 13,000 miles later. At the start the goal was to motivate a couple of children to run, the goal now is to run the circumference of the earth (24,900 miles or 100,000 laps) before the end of the year.
The idea for the running club came out of a grant the school received for some new fitness equipment called Project Fit America. The Project Fit America equipment came with a full day of training for teachers and a few volunteer parents. The instructor commented about how large a field we had at Rancho and that other schools utilized their fields for running programs. Needing no further invitation, Dave Hinds and son Chris, ran multiple iterations around the field until they had a precise quarter-mile track. They then mowed a strip in the field and setup markers.
The next morning Dave with children Chris, and Katie along with Bret Dupuis and children Ben and Gracie met 30 minutes before school and started running. Before they knew it there were more then 50 students running around the track and more watching with great interest. It was truly a case of "If you build it they will come".
Before the morning bell rang we had well over 100 kids running just for fun. Rancho Principal, Cheryl Bolling, and teachers came out to watch as well and we were all amazed to see the kids all out there. A running program was born.
The question quickly, how do we keep this going? How do we motivate kids to keep running? How do we make it measurable? How do we integrate with physical education?
The answer for motivation was a pretty simple one, answered in the form of charms, hung on a necklace earned by children for running. It is a pretty simple concept:
- 1 mile = 1 small foot
- 10 small feet = 1 big foot
- 2 big feet and 6 small feet = 26.2 charm (marathon)
And so on, for 50, 75, 100 . . . 1000
There are now 49 children that have run over 50 miles, a couple that have run close to 150 miles. On average the 543 students have run 24 miles, close to a marathon. The results are tracked and updated by teachers/parents weekly. The charms are awarded every Monday morning.
The program is only as successful as the staff, parents and especially the students make it. Overall, this worked out better then we had expected. At Rancho we have a fantastic group of teachers as well as incredibly involved parents. So we put the word out that we needed some help and before we knew it there were a great group of dedicated parents helping out M-W-F before school and T-Th during lunch.
This gives the kids an opportunity to run every day if they choose. We regularly have over 100 kids running during the times staffed by the parent volunteers. The teachers utilized the track for their class PE programs as well and we started averaging around 1,000 miles per week for the student body K-5. They were running so much that we could hardly keep up with the feet orders and soon kids had 15-20 feet on their necklace. That's when we had to order large feet to signify 10 miles and the 26.2 mile marathon charms as well Competition between kids, classes and grades motivated the kids to keep running.
Eventually the success of the program exhausted our budget and there are no signs of slowing down. We were lucky enough to have a local gym, Butterfly Life sponsor the program by paying for all charms. In subsequent weeks the running program has picked up sponsors from several other local business, such as Fleet Feet, Branco Massage, FCC-Collision Centers, BroadMarkets, GDF Solutions and Bonk Monkey Enterprises. The program is not for profit and all proceeds will be used for charms and year end t-shirts. We would like to thank these companies for their incredible support.
Rancho Running Club/Project Fit is now beginning a new quest to compete in the Governors fitness challenge. This program is sponsored by the California Governors offices. The challenge is to be active at least 30-60 minutes per day for 3 days each week over a 4 week period. The objective is to improve youth fitness and tackle childhood obesity. Several weeks back we presented the plan to the staff and it was unanimously approved, which speaks volumes about the quality of the staff at our school. At the present time, we have successfully registered all of our students, mobilized our teachers/parents for the activity and implemented a school wide healthy eating program. We really appreciate the State for putting on a quality program; this is an incredible incentive for us to continue what we have started.
Success through running
Contact bdupuis@cisco.com
Carol Goodrow: carolgoodrow@verizon.net
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