Track
Third-graders get running for a good cause
By Melissa Wood
Rich Johnston and students from his third-grade class at Coastal Ridge Elementary School took part in York Hospital’s annual 5K to raise money for rehabilitation services on June 2. The students had been training many months, with some running during every recess to get ready for the big day. Pictured, from left, are Brayton Chayer, Matt Trainor, Dante Nieves, Ben Anderson, Rex Brockelman, Sara Carley, Daria Dingle and Mac Walter with Johnston. Other runners from Johnston's class who are not pictured include Jill Hiney, Amanda Fiorentino and Mia Bell.
Courtesy photo
YORK - "You must do the thing which you think you cannot do," Eleanor Roosevelt once said.
Third-graders from Coastal Ridge Elementary School took up that challenge by running in the York Hospital 5K on June 2 with their teacher, Rich Johnston. After months of training, more than half of Johnston's class proudly participated in the race to raise money for York Hospital Rehabilitation Services.
Although the consensus among the students afterward was that the race was hard work, those that ran raised their hands without hesitation when asked whether they would do it again.
"It was really fun," said Matt Trainor, who said it was his first road race.
Dante Nieves said that he felt like giving up because of the heat, but he kept on going to finish the race.
"It was pretty hard," said Nieves. "Once you got into the race, you got pretty tired and thirsty."
"I'm glad you didn't give up," said Johnston.
Johnston said that the idea for having the students run in the race came last year after he had told his class about a road race he was going to be in and some said that they wanted to go watch.
"I decided to take it one step further and invited them to run a race with me," said Johnston, and he and his students chose to run in the local RADKids race because they thought it was a good cause.
Johnston said afterwards the kids were so proud of finishing the race and had so much fun that he decided it was something he wanted to do every year. Since there was no RADKids race this year, the class decided on running the York Hospital race to raise money for York Hospital Rehabilitation Services.
"The class really seemed on board," said Johnston. "Many ran each chance they got at recess to make sure they would be ready for the class race."
Johnson, who has been teaching third grade for two years after a career change a few years back, said he was very impressed with the "run-a-mile" program that physical education teacher Eileen Brault made part of her curriculum at CRES. In the program the students are challenged to either run or walk a mile at recess and get small rewards for each mile that they run, with bigger rewards for the more miles that they run.
"The students were very excited about the program and it seemed like almost all of them participated at one level or another," said Johnston.
Johnston said he was able to teach many academic and life lessons that were related to the road race. In math class, for example, the students talked about how long five kilometers is compared to miles, tying the race in with the third-grade math curriculum's measurement unit.
"But the most valuable lessons were about trying your hardest, taking chances and trying things that you've never done before or things that you don't think you are good at," said Johnston.
When the day of the race came, more than half the class came with parents cheering them on or running the race, too. Classmates supported each other with some who finished the race before others getting bottles of water to bring to those still on the course.
"Seeing these kids who didn't think they could finish a 5K run across the finish line to a cheering crowd was just an awesome thing to witness," said Johnston, who has invited this year's alumni already to next year's race. "You could just see the pride in their smiles."
