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Grade-school running club may teach life lesson
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| Photo: Crystal LoGiudice Principal Sheri Coder congratulates students as they finish the final lap of running during the first meeting of the running club at Ridgewood Elementary on Monday. | |||
 More photos from this shoot | |||
| Photo: Crystal LoGiudice Ridgewood Elementary 3rd and 4th graders stretch prior to running during the first meeting of the running club at the school on Monday. During the meeting the kids did stretches and then ran or walked for 30 minutes led by principal Sheri Coder and a few other teachers at the school. They will practice during the week, until the Pumpkin Dash is held, then run it as a school. | |||
 More photos from this shoot | |||
| Photo: Crystal LoGiudice Mike Mendelin, Ridgewood Elementary librarian, leads a group of 3rd and 4th graders as they run and walk for 30 minutes for the first meeting of the running club at the school on Monday. During the meeting the kids did stretches and then ran or walked for 30 minutes led by principal Sheri Coder and a few other teachers at the school. They will practice during the week, until the Pumpkin Dash is held, then run it as a school. | |||
 More photos from this shoot | |||
| Photo: Crystal LoGiudice Ridgewood Elementary principal Sheri Coder leads a group of 3rd and 4th graders in stretches as the kids participate in the first meeting of the running club at the school on Monday. During the meeting the kids did stretches and then ran or walked for 30 minutes led by Coder and a few other teachers at the school. | |||
 More photos from this shoot | |||
| Photo: Crystal LoGiudice Ridgewood Elementary 4th grader Robert Whitley, right, watches as 3rd grader Jack Scholfield jumps over a cone while they run for 30 minutes with the rest of the running club Monday at Ridgewood Elementary. | |||
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EAST MOLINE -- They stream past the bright orange traffic cones, about four minutes into what is to be a 30-minute workout.
For some, it is a second lap. For those who are walking, it's the first.
Continuous movement is the goal for the 46 third- and fourth-graders at Ridgewood Elementary School in East Moline who make up the new running club that launched Monday.
School-sponsored extra-curricular sporting activities are rare in elementary schools, said principal Sheri Coder. But this was an opportunity to teach students lessons about fortitude and fitness.
Mike Mendelin, Ridgewood's media specialist/librarian, borrowed the idea from another school after seeing a televised story last year about its running club.
At about that time, Ridgewood students were being tested for the The President's Challenge Physical Activity and Fitness Awards Program. Mr. Mendelin, then a third-grade teacher, said he watched his students come back to class 'either very excited or severely out-of-breath.'
'We saw the need for this running club in two places. One, to get kids running who like to run, and secondly, to meet a need to get kids more active,' he said. 'We want it to be a running club that inspires them to get moving and to nurture some talent.'
Ms. Coder said there are several teachers in the building who walk or run for exercise, stress-relief or just for weight management. One day, while talking, they decided, 'If we love this and it is something we are passionate about, let's get the kids involved,' she said.
'Why not start when they are little and their habits are just forming,' Ms. Coder said, adding the participants may realize exercise is fun.
'We had no idea how many kids we would attract,' she said.
Monday the students were divided into groups -- those who thought they could run the quarter-mile course the entire time, those who'd do it at a jogging pace, those who'd stop-and-go, and those who'd power walk.
They started practice within their groups, widely spread out by their pace.
But by the third lap, all of the students created an almost solid line over the entire course, some walking, some still running, many jogging.
Once a week they will practice for a half-hour in which they are expected to keep moving at all times. That hard work will culminate with the Ridgewood running club entering the Cornbelt Running Club's Pumpkin Dash one-mile children's race in late October.
The race will teach the children when they put their time, commitment and energy into something, there can be great results, Ms. Coder said.
'This is a sport they can do for the rest of their lives,' she said, 'and you don't have to be the best at it to get something out of it.'