2006 Grade School Field Trip Day           

Speakers offer positive lifestyle inspiration to young athletes

[DEC. 21, 2005]  Featured speaker for the 10th annual Grade School Field Trip Day at the March Madness Experience will be Lloyd Bachrach of Yes, You Can! Inc. A gifted motivator, Bachrach is a person who practices what he preaches. And what he preaches through Yes, You Can is devoted to inspiring and motivating others to reach their ultimate potential.

This year's Grade School Field Trip Day will be conducted in two sessions on March 15, 2006, between Class A and Class AA state basketball tournaments, at the Peoria Civic Center. The event is co-sponsored by the Illinois Elementary School Association and the Illinois High School Association in conjunction with the Illinois Sheriffs' Association.

Girls and boys in grades 5-8 from every grade, middle and junior high school in Illinois are eligible to participate in the Grade School Field Trip Day. The first session is scheduled for 9-11:30 a.m., and the second session is set for 12:30-3 p.m. More than 5,000 students and chaperones have attended the event over the past several years.

Admission for all who attend is free. Expenses of staging the event are the responsibility of the Illinois Elementary School Association and the Illinois High School Association.

At each session participants listen to a number of speakers who talk to the students and their chaperones about productive lifestyles, who the positive role models should be in their lives, the role of officials in athletic contests, the importance and impact of good sportsmanship on and off the court or playing field, and how to overcome bad influences in their lives.

Bachrach will be the 14th different speaker to address the attendees. His life story is one to remember. He was born in 1962 with a congenital bone deficiency that left his legs unusually small. Due to the severity of his disability, some doctors suggested there would be little or no hope for a normal life; however, his parents encouraged him to participate in sports at a young age -- first swimming, then youth baseball. He excelled, and this helped him develop positive self-esteem. At age 13, he was faced with the challenge of wearing artificial limbs. In high school and college he competed in gymnastics against able-bodied athletes. In the IHSA state gymnastics finals in 1980, he placed fifth in pommel horse for Dolton Thornridge with a score of 8.0.

In 1995, Bachrach created the Yes, You Can organization to inspire and motivate others to reach their ultimate potential. He lives a full, well-balanced life. He and his wife, Julia, are the parents of two daughters.

Another speaker in this year's lineup is Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston, representing the Illinois Sheriffs' Association. Huston is the leadoff speaker and directs the students toward positive lifestyles and what students in grade school and junior high should look for in the friends they make.

Students are also scheduled to hear how to work with the athletic officials in their sports and will be encouraged to consider becoming an athletic official in their favorite sport while in high school and making a career of it after graduation.

Nearly 100 volunteer deputy sheriffs and volunteers from throughout Illinois provide the manpower each year to operate the various venues of the March Madness Experience inside the Peoria Civic Center's 68,000-square-foot Exhibit Hall. The speakers address the participants in the center's Carver Arena before they converge on the adjoining Exhibit Hall. In years past, members of high school varsity basketball teams have joined the students from their feeder schools to help reinforce the positive values of involvement in interscholastic athletics and activities and to give on-site assistance to the younger students.

More than 45,000 students have attended the annual Grade School Field Trip Day during its first nine years. Many schools make it an annual event for their fifth- through eighth-graders. Parents and students interested in information regarding the event should contact the administration of their local grade, middle or junior high school.

[IESA news release provided by Jim Flynn]

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