Moscow students finish race

About 600 Moscow Middle School students crossed the finish line Monday, completing a cumulative half-marathon they started running at the beginning of the school year.

For the MMS second annual Fun Run each student ran a total of 13.1 miles, by adding up the miles they ran during the semester in their physical education classes.

"It's a celebration for all the hard work they put in the last eight weeks," said Genevieve Fealy, a physical education teacher for the middle school.

The run was made possible by a $2,500 grant the school received last year from the ING Run for Something Better School Awards Program. MMS was one of 50 schools to receive the grant out of 300 applicants. The program required a cumulative event the students could work toward and Moscow teachers decided on a fun run because it fit well into the Moscow community.

"We're pretty fortunate here in Moscow to have so many fun runs around and this encourages them to participate. It gives them a sense of what a fun run is all about with the prizes and working together and encouraging each other along the way," Fealy said.

The runners made a loop from the middle school track, down F Street, Mountain View Road, D Street, and back to the track.

"For the most part, a lot of them were really excited to run the course since they got to go off campus and not just around the track," Fealy said

Students received rewards for being top finishers and some won raffle prizes, which were donated from Moscow community sponsors.

"The community support has been really great," said Jessica Shawley, also a physical education teacher at the middle school. "We had parents at the beginning of this year asking when the Fun Run would be. When you hear that kind of feedback from parents and families that's pretty awesome."

In addition to prizes, every student received a water bottle for participating. Hydration was a key issue talked about in the classes leading up to the Fun Run.

"Especially when we don't have a ton of water fountains in this school, it's nice to be able to carry a water bottle with you to class," Shawley said.

In the eight weeks leading up to the event, sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders learned to journal their progress and set goals for themselves. Shawley said it was an important feature to the event because it gave the students a sense of ownership and purpose in participating.

"If you can plant seeds about goal setting and make a connection between kids' community and their personal lives then it is more likely they're going to take part of it with them down the road," she said.

The goal of the event was to encourage more physical activity outside of PE classes and team sports. Teachers targeted walking and running because of the increased interest in running nationwide.

"There's a whole bunch more people running now in their 20s and 30s and that's important for the kids to see," Shawley said. However, to build an interest in running they needed to create a connection between socializing and physical activity, which they accomplished by having students run alongside 200 of their peers.

"Because they're so social it's important to give them the opportunity to run with each other and to embrace that challenge of being social while being active," Shawley said. "Nowadays a lot of students tend to be social while sitting and using media, versus being social while being active."

The Fun Run also encouraged families to be active together, with about 70 volunteers helping, encouraging and even running with students.

"A lot of parents came in and ran with their kids, which is a great way to promote a family-student connection," Shawley said. The social involvement was apparent when Fealy began handing out prizes to a gym filled with eighth-graders screaming and cheering on their classmates.

"Having prizes made them really step up, but they're also learning skills they can apply to any part of their life," Shawley said. "It gives them an intrinsic and an extrinsic reward."

Estelle Gwinn can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 301, or by email to egwinn@dnews.com.