Friday, Sept. 30 will be a busy day at Londonderry Middle School, with the third annual Wellness Day and Move-A-Thon event taking place from morning through the afternoon. Both students and staff will be involved, with everybody taking part in a variety of physically active events and presentations.
The event is a fundraising effort that benefits the nine middle school teams, three at each grade level, and the school to defray the costs of the eighth grade floating lab, field trips, presenters, speakers, purchase of physical education equipment, and support for student activities on teams that enhance college and career readiness.
It is suggested that each student get a pledge of a $30 donation for a Move-A-Thon activity or for laps to be run during the walk/run event. Each lap is one-third of a mile. All the planned Move-A-Thon activities will last for 60 minutes; students choose the activity in which they wish to participate.
Two presentations are also planned – by hero artist Rob Surette and by Randy Pierce and his guide dog. Surette is a speed painter who inspires his audience with 6-foot paintings that he creates live in one to five minutes, accompanied by motivational messages, videos, music and dramatic lighting. Pierce is blind but his 2020 Vision plan is to climb all the 48 4,000-foot peaks in the White Mountains with the help of his guide dog, Autumn, and his fiancée. He will talk to the students about challenges and how to address them.
Suzan Rowe, LMS physical education teacher, said last year the day-long event raised about $17,000. The goal this year is to raise $20,000. The activities are organized by a nine-member staff committee. The words that depict this year’s theme are: ownership and perseverance.
Thirteen prizes from local merchants and businesses were collected by the Parent Teacher Organization. For each $10 raised by a student, he or she will receive a raffle ticket to put into a can for the prize they would like to win. The grand prize is two bicycles, one of which Principal Rich Zacchilli can often be seen riding around the school promoting the event.
“This is a special day, a fabulous day,” Rowe said. “Even the lunch lady gets involved using special lunch bags. This is a day that everyone buys into. The staff members pick the activity they want to run and also one for them to participate in. We also make sure we have gentler activities available for those with broken limbs or who need less strenuous activity.
“The day starts at 8:05 a.m., when each student in each grade level team gets a colored T-shirt with their team name on it to promote team spirit and individual ownership and perseverance,” she added. “The various activities and events, speakers and presentations go on all day and the classroom teachers brainstorm with their students on how best to tie all the different parts of the day together.”
The goals are for each homeroom to collectively run or walk the distance to Boston or 26 miles; to raise $20,380, thus surpassing the school’s magazine drive; and to inspire students to believe in themselves, set goals, and realize anything is possible if they take ownership and persevere, while having fun and building school spirit.
Among the Move-A-Thon activities are yoga, karate, Pilates, kickboxing, Latin dancing, kickball, capture the football, Lord of the Rings, 3 on 3 basketball, ultimate Frisbee, hiking to Moose Hill, recess games and yard games.