Since 2010, Pacer National Bullying Prevention Center’s Run, Walk, Roll Against Bullying events have been held in schools, businesses, and communities across the country. This year Jumping Branch Elementary and Talcott Elementary participated in the contest. Jumping Branch Elementary placed 1st in the nation and Talcott placed 3rd in the nation.
Tracey Foster-Long is the school counselor for both of these schools and is who organized and signed the schools up for these events. Foster-Long said, “I received notification from the National Bullying Prevention Center of the event, and I felt it was a good opportunity for them to participate in a worthwhile project. Bullying is an age-old problem and as a school counselor, I focus a lot of my curriculum on bullying. I feel that if we can encourage our young people to ban together and speak up against bullying, it may lessen in the future.”
Foster-Long continued, “Jumping Branch Elementary ranked first with 7,642 miles. Jumping Branch Title I Teacher, Sydney Jordan, made a WV map for us to track the counties we would have walked through. We used paw prints and a tiger so the kids could visually see their progress. We walked through every county and then some.
Talcott Elementary came in 3rd Nationwide with 5,512 miles. Students walked on a daily basis and teachers and staff did too. We logged our miles weekly. I personally was walking 8-10 miles daily. We have one teacher’s aide that already walks 20 miles a day, so she boosted our numbers quickly.
At Jumping Branch, we walked our playground field and went on secondary roads.
At Talcott, we walked around the school building. We used it as a learning opportunity to teach about the importance of exercise for our mental and physical health, as well as math and mileage. The kids absolutely loved it — they were passing me in the halls and asking if we were going walking today. Even the children that were not that enthusiastic about exercise in the beginning were begging to go by the end of the month.
I think they were invested in accomplishing the goal to walk around the earth against bullying. They strived to go farther each day. We have learned that instead of bullying by banding together we can achieve any goal and build a better world. We have spent more than a year in a pandemic and being outside and laughing and talking to one another made the kids feel like things were almost normal.
I’d like to thank my principals Angela Taylor, and Jessie Rodes, for giving me their full support.”
Both schools will be featured on the Pacer National Website and receive a plaque in the near future.
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