PEABODY — The city’s fifth-graders got a taste of Olympic glory on Tuesday at the Mayor Bettencourt Fifth Grade Olympiad.
More than 470 fifth-grade students took part in a variety of events on the football field of Veterans Memorial High School, including tug of war, softball throw, basketball, and the 45-yard dash.
Center Elementary School took home the Mayor’s Cup as the overall winner. John E. Burke Elementary School won the Spirit Award and Captain Samuel Brown School took home the Sportsmanship Award.
Meggan Batten teaches at Burke, and noted the event was an important part of the students’ transition to middle school in the fall.
“These kids have been in their elementary school for six years at this point,” Batten, who has taught at Burke for seven years, said. “They’re ready to branch out to intermingle and meet other kids from the district.”
Larry Leavitt, a physical education teacher at Center Elementary, said the Olympiad is one of the highlights of the school year and echoed how important the event was for the students’ transition to middle school.
“Right now they don’t know each other,” Leavitt said. ”It’s a way of introducing them and they’ll become friends once they go to the middle school.”
Maria Caruso, an adapted-physical-education teacher, has been organizing the event for eight years, along with wellness teacher Molly Foster.
Caruso said the program has been a way to introduce students to new sports, and that students in the past have told her that they pursued a sport after being introduced to it at the Olympiad.
“I feel this is one way we can motivate kids, but also inspire them,” Caruso said.
Peabody’s own Olympic gold medal winner, Samantha Arsenault, was also in attendance and spoke to high-schoolers as well as the fifth-graders.
“Whatever it is you’re dreaming about, let that fuel you,” Arsenault, an alumna of Center Elementary, said in a speech to the fifth-grade students. “Give yourself permission to dream.”
Arsenault won gold in the women’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She said she hoped her story showed students what is possible and also stressed the importance of looking after their mental health.
“My intention was to share what I needed to hear at that time but hadn’t,” Arsenault said.
The event was started eight years ago by Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt Jr., who said he was happy to see how successful it has been throughout the years.
Bettencourt said he participated in a similar event when he was at South Memorial Elementary School as a child.
“I have great memories of that,” Bettencourt said. “When I became mayor, this was a tradition that I wanted to bring back.”
Bettencourt said he believes the event has become a great tradition, and one he looks forward to every year.
“It’s very meaningful to me,” Bettencourt said. “I had a great time when I was a young student at the South Elementary School. To see others having fun is very meaningful on a personal level.”
Bettencourt’s two daughters were among the roughly 25 Peabody High School students volunteering at the games.
Josh Sigmon, a Peabody High School junior, competed in the Fifth Grade Olympiad when he went to Thomas Carroll Elementary School and said he felt things had come full circle.
“When I was a kid people did this for me,” Sigmon said. “It’s great to be able to do this for them.”
Laurie Lundergan has taught fifth grade at Burke for 31 years. She said the day is one students long look forward to, and deserve, after the long school year.
However, she said this group of fifth-graders moving on to middle school would be missed.
“They’re going to be very tough to lose,” she said.