Thirty-one Tallassee Elementary School second graders have joined a special club — The Mile Club.
The Mile Club is managed by P.E. teacher Terrell Brown to encourage healthy habits early in life. Every student at Tallassee Elementary School runs one mile every week, only a select few make it into the Mile Club.
“Mile Clubbers are a special group for us,” Brown said. “They run at least two to three miles per week. It is hard to get 40 miles in during a school year. I’m very proud of this group.”
The school has a quarter mile track to make the running possible. But running doesn’t happen every day at the school.
“It is not the easiest thing in the world to do at school during the school year, especially with the challenges of cold weather, rain and holidays,” Brown said. “It can’t be too cold or hot. If the heat index gets much above 90 degrees we are not going to do it.”
Brown hopes the students will take the physical activity habits home. Not only does he want his students to play and run, but he wants the children to be the example for the parents.
“I think the kids can help their parents,” Brown said. “They don’t have to run. Just get outside and throw a ball around and be there with their children. It will help you get more healthy and it will strengthen the bonds between parent and child.”
Brown also helps students with the Presidential Youth Fitness Program. The nationwide program has been around since 1966, but the physical fitness test has changed over the years.
“Instead of the shuttle run and pull ups, they switched over to pushups, crunches and the mile run,” Brown said. “The students have to make that mile in 14 minutes.”
Besides encouraging a healthy lifestyle, Brown wants to instill good habits and learn to set and achieve goals.
“I want them to set a goal that is bigger than themselves and go for it,” Brown said. “From there we figure out how to break it down into parts and chip away at the bigger goal.”
Brown used the Awards Day Program to give the new Mile Clubbers a bag with a T-shirt, trophy and more.
“Not all students who set the goal make it,” Brown said. “Hopefully they have seen the awards, they saw the prizes, sometimes they are rewards driven. I hope they come back and try again next year.”
Second grader Jack Goodwin said running with Brown was fun. He especially liked how all of the awards for the school year were given at once.
“Can you believe I got two trophies?” Jack said. “It was hard to get the Mile Club.”
Goodwin was also proud of his Accelerated Reading (AR) trophy. School Librarian Kaley Pugh recognized students who earned at least 100 AR Points during the school year. Goodwin was one of more than 20 second graders to get the AR Trophy.
“It is a tough mark to get,” Pugh said.
The school is honoring more than just the second graders. By the end of school, all kindergarten, first, third and fourth graders will also be honored for perfect attendance, honor roll, AR and Mile Club.
