LAVALLETTE — Lavallette School continued its yearly participation in the Kids Heart Challenge on Wednesday, when students took their gym period to learn about heart health after raising money for the American Heart Association (AHA) for the past several weeks.
Every year, during the AHA’s Kids Heart Challenge, teachers and students across the country organize to learn about heart health, get active and raise money for the association. In his first year as the school’s physical education teacher, Randy Royle has revamped Lavallette’s take on the challenge.
“Each station here is based on one of the Heart Heroes; each one of the Heart Heroes has a different challenge and different information about heart health for the kids,” he said.
The Heart Heroes are the duck mascots of the Kids Heart Challenge, with each one representing a different aspect of heart health. For example, “Wynn’s Lung Power Challenge” tested the kids’ lung capacity by blowing a plastic cup across a table as far as possible, with Wynn and the activity also encouraging the students to stay away from vaping and tobacco.
“This is actually my first time doing the Kids Heart Challenge,” Royle said. “It’s been a great experience so far; the kids really put their heart and effort into it. They really enjoy the activities, and it’s for a great cause.”
“I’m a big believer that, when the kids are in the gym, it’s a very controlled chaos,” he said. “It’s a time when conflict can happen, so I think that conflict resolution — allowing the kids to be competitive, but also being respectful to one another and working things out — is really my big goal in teaching these kids.”
Lavallette School Principal Lisa Gleason explained that, while Lavallette has participated in the event for some time, Royle has successfully “woven” this character education element into the challenge this year.
“We’ve been running the Kids Heart Challenge for many years at Lavallette School,” said Gleason. “But Mr. Royle has put a whole new spin on it; he has really put a lot of focus on character education and woven that into the activities.”
As of Thursday morning, Lavallette Elementary School had raised $5,038 for the AHA in this year’s challenge. The Kids Heart Challenge also includes an activity called “Finn’s Mission,” named after a real third-grader with multiple congenital heart defects. Finn’s Mission involves several individual challenges, like donating to the AHA, learning hands-only CPR, recognizing the warning signs of a stroke and sharing the challenge on social media.
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