Members of Manchester College’s Sport, Health, and Physical Education (SHAPE) Club collaborated with members of the Student Education Association (SEA) to host Read Across America Day and Jump Rope for Heart at the local elementary school on Monday, March 3.

  
Dr. Kim Duchane, associate professor of Exercise and Sport Sciences, and Dr. Korrine Gust, assistant Professor of education, developed the interdisciplinary project as a means of connecting reading with physical activity. SEA members read books to the children and taught them jump rope chants, while SHAPE Club members organized a jump rope station; there was also a craft station dealing with Cat in the Hat, a popular children’s book by Dr. Seuss.

  
The main focus of the day was to afford the young participants with an opportunity to have fun while also improving themselves both mentally and physically. SHAPE Club members orchestrated the Jump Rope for Heart program as a service project with the goal of raising money to benefit heart research for the American Heart Association.

  
Two weeks prior to Read Across America Day, the MES students were introduced to the program and challenged to procure donations from family and friends. “The American Heart Association offers thank you gifts for the children depending on how much they raised,” said Dr. Duchane. “As an added incentive, if a student brought in donations of $75 or more, I told them I would bring in a (Manchester College) football player and each student who brought in this money could throw a pie at him.”

  
Several MC students contributed their time to coordinate and supervise the program, in which over 100 elementary students participated .“Our involvement was voluntary,” said first-year student Jordon Knox. “We even had volunteers who were not a part of SHAPE Club or SEA participate in it.”

  
Sophomore Chelsea Bower said: “The actual event lasted about two hours. I mainly helped all the second grade classrooms with jumping rope and saying the chants they learned previously.” The SHAPE Club leaders and members of SEA, who were involved in the program, didn’t have to spend much time preparing for the activities other than on the day of the event itself. “For me, there really wasn’t much time spent at all outside of the activity,” Bower said. “I had one meeting to attend to decide what exactly we were going to do as a group. Other than that I just spent some time emailing and recruiting a few people to help out with the project.”

  
Some of the MC students who helped with the program explained that there really wasn’t anything too difficult about coordinating the event, but that the biggest task was just finding enough people who were available to participate. The event was considered a success by everyone contacted and it appears that the children weren’t the only ones who had fun. “The reactions from the (elementary) students were great; I think they had fun just being able to be active during the school day,” said sophomore Ricky McKee. “I also think the teachers enjoyed the event because it was something that they could just sit back and watch, although most of them actually joined in during the jump rope and had fun doing so with their students.”

  
The MES students raised in excess of $1,100 for the American Heart Association during the Jump Rope for Heart program and at least five or six students brought in more than $75. All the children will receive their thank-you gifts from the AHA and a few students, who met Dr. Duchane’s standard for the bonus prize, earned the right to throw a pie at a Spartan football player.

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