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Young students survive obstacle course
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| Kindergartners run out from a tent made from boxes while participating in the survivor challenge obstacle course Friday at Verdugo Woodlands Elementary. (Alex Collins/ Glendale News-Press) |
Verdugo Woodlands Elementary kids help raise funds for staff members during Survivor Challenge.
By Angela Hokanson
Students emerged muddy, tired and happy from a Verdugo Woodlands Elementary School obstacle course known as the Survivor Challenge on Friday.
The parent-organized event took place on the school’s playground, where students completed 13 physical activities — including crawling through cardboard boxes and running through tires — during a fundraiser to contribute to the salaries of four school employees.
“I hope you’ve been training,” parent Ester Moran told the first batch of students before they started the course. “You’re going to get sweaty and dirty.”
Students crawled under plastic nets, walked across wooden balance beams and maneuvered through a web of ropes that parents had set up around the school’s playground.
During the weeks before Friday’s challenge event, students asked family and friends to pledge money for the cause. The money raised will help cover the salaries of the school’s assistant librarian, a reading specialist, a materials clerk and a counselor.
Parents aimed to raise about $15,000 to cover a portion of the salaries, and $12,000 has come in so far, Moran said.
Students were assigned to one of four “tribes,” like on the television show “Survivor,” and each tribe was asked to raise money for one of the four staff positions. In the end, the money will be pooled to cover the salaries equitably, but the students were given a tribe to motivate them to raise money for a particular person, Moran said.
Verdugo Woodlands does not receive federal Title I funds that go to schools with a sizable population of low-income students. As a result, the school would not be able to afford these four positions if it weren’t for the help of the school’s parent-run foundation, which is known as the Woodlanders are Volunteers for Education Foundation, Principal Janet Buhl said.
“Our budget is much smaller and leaner than other schools,” she said.
Two of the four positions in questions are funded entirely by the foundation’s contributions; and two of the positions are funded partially by parents and partially with school funds, Buhl said.
The Survivor Challenge was a great experience said 10-year-old Lucas Moran, because the students have fun, get exercise, and help raise money for the school.
The best element in the obstacle course was crawling through a tunnel made of cardboard boxes while carrying small hand weights, 10-year-old Joseph Fredrickson said.
“Because you had to test your strength and skill to get there,” he said.
Kaia Delves, the president of the school’s foundation, came up with the idea of the Survivor Challenge last year. She wanted to create an event that would be enjoyable for students and that would help retain these four positions, which she said are vital to the school.
“If we didn’t have a librarian I don’t know how we’d run the library,” Delves said.
The parent-organized event took place on the school’s playground, where students completed 13 physical activities — including crawling through cardboard boxes and running through tires — during a fundraiser to contribute to the salaries of four school employees.
“I hope you’ve been training,” parent Ester Moran told the first batch of students before they started the course. “You’re going to get sweaty and dirty.”
Students crawled under plastic nets, walked across wooden balance beams and maneuvered through a web of ropes that parents had set up around the school’s playground.
During the weeks before Friday’s challenge event, students asked family and friends to pledge money for the cause. The money raised will help cover the salaries of the school’s assistant librarian, a reading specialist, a materials clerk and a counselor.
Parents aimed to raise about $15,000 to cover a portion of the salaries, and $12,000 has come in so far, Moran said.
Students were assigned to one of four “tribes,” like on the television show “Survivor,” and each tribe was asked to raise money for one of the four staff positions. In the end, the money will be pooled to cover the salaries equitably, but the students were given a tribe to motivate them to raise money for a particular person, Moran said.
Verdugo Woodlands does not receive federal Title I funds that go to schools with a sizable population of low-income students. As a result, the school would not be able to afford these four positions if it weren’t for the help of the school’s parent-run foundation, which is known as the Woodlanders are Volunteers for Education Foundation, Principal Janet Buhl said.
“Our budget is much smaller and leaner than other schools,” she said.
Two of the four positions in questions are funded entirely by the foundation’s contributions; and two of the positions are funded partially by parents and partially with school funds, Buhl said.
The Survivor Challenge was a great experience said 10-year-old Lucas Moran, because the students have fun, get exercise, and help raise money for the school.
The best element in the obstacle course was crawling through a tunnel made of cardboard boxes while carrying small hand weights, 10-year-old Joseph Fredrickson said.
“Because you had to test your strength and skill to get there,” he said.
Kaia Delves, the president of the school’s foundation, came up with the idea of the Survivor Challenge last year. She wanted to create an event that would be enjoyable for students and that would help retain these four positions, which she said are vital to the school.
“If we didn’t have a librarian I don’t know how we’d run the library,” Delves said.
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