Adams and Northwest Schools join together in Relay Recess for the American Cancer Society

Send a link to a friend  Share

[June 15, 2018]  LINCOLN - On Wednesday, May 23rd, students from Adams joined Northwest School for a Relay Recess event to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

The event was organized by Northwest Fourth Grade Teacher Tammy Dietrich.

Students gathered outside for a special assembly before beginning their mini-relay and going around to stations. Between the schools there are over 250 students in grades kindergarten through fifth.



Northwest Principal Chris Allen shared some startling statistics about cancer with the children. He said every year 14,000,000 people worldwide are told they have cancer.

Allen said, “Today is not only going to be a fun day, but a day where we learn about taking care of ourselves.” He told the students, we will learn why it is important to take care of our skin and why it is important to not just sit on the couch playing video games and eating a bag of Doritos all day.

Allen said the day was all about cancer, and when he asked how many knew someone with cancer, many raised their hands.

Students would learn about how to protect themselves, how to practice sun safety, why it is important to not take up smoking, and how to take care of their bodies.

Allen said that between the ages of 0 and 49, one out of 30 males will hear they have cancer and one of 18 females will hear they have cancer. He said that would be about one out of every person in each class will have cancer.

Allen said as we walk and play today, everything is in the name of helping people try to raise awareness for cancer and try to find ways to cure cancer.

Students at both schools had been participating in a coin war for the last three weeks. Adams raised $150. Mrs. Dietrich and Mr. Allen set the goal for Northwest at $500, but students passed that amount in four days. They kept raising the goal and finally, students had raised over $1,500 and Allen expected the amount to reach $1,700 by the end of the day.

Allen said all the money would be going to the Relay for Life and would help cancer patients with transportation needs to get to the hospital, help them if they need to stay in a hotel during treatment, and help with treatment.

Allen said the overall winner of the coin war was Mrs. Allsup’s class with 10,373 points.

When it was time for the relay segment, Mr. Allen called up the cancer survivors, which included four school staff. Survivors were given flowers and asked to lead the children in the first lap around the course.


One survivor was Royce Scales (in white hat). In 2012, Scales had a three-pound malignant tumor removed from his intestine. Scales said he is one of about 2,000 people with this cancer and he went to Houston, Texas to sign up for a research study.


Scales said his cancer was dormant last year, but he has two CAT scans every year since it could return or stay away, but they must watch it. He is in fairly decent health, works all the time, and doesn’t look back.

[to top of second column]



Besides taking laps around the course, students also went to one of several stations to learn about sun safety, dance, do Cosmic kids yoga, color pictures for the June 16 Relay for Life, try healthy foods, and slide down a blow-up slide.



At the sun safety station, students learned several myths about sun cancer such as sun damage not being possible on a windy, cloudy, or cold day; not being able to get burnt through a window; and people with dark skin not being at risk for skin cancer. They also learned that sunscreen should not be used to extend the amount of time spent in the sun.

Students also learned signs of skin cancer such as asymmetrical spots, border spots, more than one shade of spots, and spots that have a large diameter. They would learn to “slip on a shirt, slap on some sunscreen, slap on a hat, and wrap on sunglasses” and experiment what happens with different types of SPF.

At another station, students learned about what smoking does to lungs. The children were asked to jump, then plug their noses and try breathing through a straw because that is what cigarettes do to the lungs. They saw what a smoker’s lungs looked like, what healthy lungs looked like, and how hard it is for lungs to pump when one smokes, and learned that lungs can recover up to 97% in the years after someone stops smoking.

Tonita Reifsteck, who has worked with the Relay for Life for many years, said that some people are now using a Juul Vaper, which is like smoking eight cigarettes at a time. Reifsteck said when she worked at a hospital she could always tell the moms who had smoked during their pregnancy because the pillows would turn yellow as the baby breathed on it.



Angie Whiteman of the Coordinated Approach to Health (CATCH) program had children spin a wheel and then do whatever exercise they spun. Whiteman taught them movements they could do even when playing video games.

At the dancing station, students did coordinated dancing movements following along with a Go Noodle video.

At the Yoga station students learned and practices several yoga positions.

At the bouncy house students could climb and then slide down a blow-up slide.

To practice healthy eating, students were also able to sample fresh pears at one station.

All the day’s activities helped support the upcoming Relay for Life, which will be held Saturday, June 16th from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. inside the Jack Nutt Arena in the Lincoln Center at Lincoln College.


[Angela Reiners]

 

Back to top