Wednesday was the designated day for Iowa’s annual Healthiest State Walk to promote active lifestyles and schools around the district have been observing the occasion throughout the week.
Howe Elementary School picked Friday for their all-school exercise, the afternoon originally but the weather forecast prompted Principal Jill Burke to move it up to Friday morning.
Sunshine would have been in the spirit of the event but the closest thing to that was a yellow tetherball hanging limply from a pole on the playground.
Skies were gray but the t-shirts everyone wore were blue, accented by a clever design courtesy of Burke and her graphic artist husband.
My HOME
Is at HOWE
It looked better on the shirts than it appears on a page, especially in combination with kids’ smiling faces. The grounds were damp and soggy, limiting laps to the playground, but there was no dampening the mood. After all, the usual motto at Howe is “Go Nice!” And regardless of the weather, Friday marked the culmination of a successful fundraising campaign spearheaded by Howe students.
“The kids raised over $2,000, more than enough to pay for the t-shirts,” said Burke. “We’re going to use the rest of the money to buy playground and PE equipment in keeping with the healthiest state campaign.”
But back to the walk.
It was also a skip, a hop and a jump. Most of the walkers and skippers and hoppers and jumpers wore tennis shoes, but there were some rain boots too, and at least one pair of heels. The kindergarteners got a head start on the upper grades and some took the opportunity to sharpen their counting skills. Estimates of the number of orbits around the course ranged from four to four hundred.
It was all over and done before any heavy rains came. Considering the gloomy, threatening weather, it went nicely. That’s how things generally go at Howe.