MOUNT VERNON — Twin Oak students are already in Kansas but the teachers are stuck in Massachusetts. In an effort to stay healthy and keep fit, the Twin Oak family is walking across America, so to speak. The walking challenge began on Sept. 22, and the starting point was Boston, Mass. As of Monday, the pupils are a long way ahead of the adults – 2,039 miles to 71 miles.
There are 375 students and 55 staff members combining their total distance for the challenge. To help even the odds, staff members from the Knox County Cardiology Center donated pedometers so the teachers can keep a more accurate account of their steps.
“The teachers really are walking,” said principal Sue Miller. “They just don’t have time to walk around the track at lunch time.”
With lap lines painted on the playground driveway, students walk, jog or run around the track during their recess times. Some even make it more challenging by bouncing a ball along the way. To keep a correct count of laps, each pupil picks up a straw at the end of each lap. Student council members keep track of the total number of laps and with the help of the student council advisor, calculate how far the students have traveled across the United States. Physical education instructor Jerry Clinger keeps a class-by-class graph in the gymnasium.
Clinger said the students were so enthusiastic about the walking challenge that many were overexerting themselves. They are now limited to no more than 15 (one-tenth of a mile) laps per day each. Each grade level has a different combined weekly goal: Kindergarten, 50 laps; first grade, 100 laps; second grade, 120 laps, third grade, 140 laps, fourth grade, 160 laps, and fifth grade, 180 laps.
Fifth-grader Conner Grennell likes the Walk Across America challenge.
“It helps kids get exercise,” he said. “It’s fun. You get to walk around and talk to your friends and relax.” He thinks it’s “funny” that the kids are in Kansas but the teachers are stuck in Massachusetts. “The kids are already halfway across America,” he boasted. “We’re going to beat the teachers.”
Each teacher’s goal is to walk 10,000 steps daily. To help make sure they do, Randy Orsborn, board-certified physician assistant with Knox Cardiology Associates Inc., delivered the pedometers to Twin Oak.
“The pedometers,” he said, “are pretty good to help you figure out where you need to be. You might think you are walking a lot at work, but these will let you know how far you really are walking.”
Orsborn applauded the Twin Oak walking initiative. He said the National Institutes of Health has recently issued guidelines concerning physical activity and recreation for adults, and recommend 30 minutes of moderate daily exercise, such as walking 10,000 steps per day.
Orsborn said the initiative is also good for the students. He said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have just released new data demonstrating that only 32 percent of school-aged children attain the recommended level of physical activity to maintain a basic level of fitness.
“Children’s daily physical activity now, “ he said, “is about 10 percent of what it used to be. Children used to run and play more than in this computer-generated society and age of television and video games.”
Besides the physical health benefits of Walk Across America, teachers are using the activity to reinforce health and nutrition skills, math skills, map reading and social studies skills. Miller said she plans to show video clips of national park sites as the “journey” takes the students and staff past them.
Once the teachers get out of Massachusetts, they will continue their trip, following the students north to Alaska, back through the West Coast and south to Hawaii. Then they will “head back home” to the East Coast, through the southern states to Ohio.
