Students in the Mileage Club at Sturgeon Heights School celebrated a monumental feat last week — running 823 kilometres on their 200-metre track since the beginning of the school year. And they’re not finished yet.
The kilometres, which represent the distance between Canada’s west coast and St. Albert, mark one portion of the club’s ultimate goal: to run the equivalent distance of a cross-Canada jaunt before the end of the school year.
Every lunch hour, students in Grades 1, 2 and 3 take to the school’s outdoor track, which was recently cleared of snow for the runners. The distance run by students each day is then marked on a map of Canada.
Students who join the Mileage Club are given a special keychain and then receive a mileage foot for every 10 laps completed afterwards.
The Mileage Club is part of the Positive Playground program, a mentorship program started at the school five years ago.
Through the program, students in Grade 4, 5 and 6 act as mentors and are charged with organizing games and events for all students, including those in younger grades, to participate in.
Activities include ball hockey, lacrosse, parachute games, snow fort building and snow castle competitions.
Positive Playground co-ordinator Carol Moores said bullying incidents at Sturgeon Heights have practically disappeared since introducing the Positive Playground program at the school.
“We practically have nothing here anymore because now the kids have stuff to do every recess,” said Moores, adding that kids are also learning important virtues such as sharing and responsibility.
“Everybody seems to be busy on the playground. As supervisors, we don’t have any of that, ‘She pushed me and he did this and they won’t let me play,’” Moores said.
Through the program, Moores said students are also increasing their level of physical activity.
“They started running only one to two laps and now these kids are up to 10.
“They just love it.”
During lunch hour, dozens of kids take to the track, including the program’s 62 mentors.
Other activities include seashell hunts, indoor ball hockey tournaments and a mud pie contest.
Moores said mentors organize all the activities, after submitting a proposal to her describing the event.
Staff is also keen to get involved in some of the events.
“Every time we have a mini-soccer tournament, the teachers come out and play staff versus students to end it off,” said Moores.
“It’s fabulous, it keeps kids active. They’re always physically active, every single day. It increases their creativity and their imagination. We discovered kids just don’t know how to play. Now they’ve got shovels that go out every day,” she said.
“They’re just relearning how to play.”
Students in the Mileage Club still have another 7,000 km to run, but Moores said their achievements will be recognized at the end of the year.
“We’re going to have a big celebration when we get to St. John’s,” she said.
