Jumping for heart
More than $500 raised for Heart and Stroke Foundation
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
NAUJAAT
Students and staff at Tusarvik School raised more than $500 during their annual fundraiser for the Heart and Stroke Foundation earlier this month.
D o m i n i c K r i p a n i k ( f r o n t l e f t ) w a t c h e s a s S a m u e l M a p s a l a k g e t s s o m e a i r wh i l e T h o m a s H a q p i a n d A n d r e a U t t a k , b a c k r i g h t , g e t r e a d y f o r t h e i r turn d u r i n g t h e J u m p R o p e f o r H e a r t a c t i v i t y a t T u s a r v i k S c h o o l i n
N a u j a a t. - p h o t o c o u r t e s y o f J u l i a M a c P h e r s o n |
The students took part in both Jump Rope for Heart and Hoops for Heart activities on March 1.
Vice-principal Julia MacPherson said Tusarvik School has been hosting the annual fundraiser for a number of years now.
She said the event is usually held before the Valentine's Day weekend, but had to be postponed a few times this year due to bad weather.
"Our kindergarten to Grade 6 classes take part in Jump Rope for Heart," said MacPherson.
"The elementary students do a number of fundraising activities before their activity day.
"Teacher Elsa Pinkohs took the lead on these activities, organizing a healthy snack sale that featured smoothies, fruit cups and baked goods, as well as creating Valentine's Day cards to sell.
"She raised more than $400 with her efforts."
The fundraiser's activity day consists of the kindergarten to Grade 6 students being broken up into groups to visit 11 stations during the afternoon event.
The stations include a stretching/warmup session, followed by various skipping activities such as double-dutch, rattlesnake and backwards-jump skipping.
The students also take part in a yoga session, a just dance period and a healthy snack break.
Music is played over the PA system, with both students and teachers being active and getting their hearts pumping.
MacPherson said the Grade 7 to Grade 12 classes take part in the Hoops for Heart program, which sees them taking part in a number of basketball activities.
She said they also break into groups and visit stations in the gym.
"Our Hoops for Heart is lead by our physical-education teacher, Bill Kennedy. Their stations include low-basket shooting and dunking, Bump, 21, a hotshot contest, a one-half-court scrimmage, musical chairs and a rest and refreshment break.
"To raise money the students pay $1 to make various shots from half-court in order to have their name entered in a draw and, between the junior high and senior high students, they raised more than $200 to put our fundraising totals over our set goal of $500.
"This is a great activity day for everyone at Tusarvik School."
