By JOHN ANDERSON (photos by Tracy DeRose and Ella Green)
While scrolling Instagram, Wellsville Elementary School Physical Education teacher Gia George noticed Cait Davis on Instagram (@physedgirls) talking about how to organize a Turkey Trot for kids and make a food donation for the community.
The post was made on Nov. 1 and Davis explained on her Instagram page how it could be done in a short amount of time in her post. George, who is also the softball coach at Wellsville, followed the list to a “T” (after all, turkey, Thanksgiving) and pulled off an amazing month of giving and exercising.
The result? Today on Thanksgiving, those who needed just a little bit more in the community benefited from 1,800 pounds of donated food and the students in pre-kindergarten to fifth grade.
On Monday, Nov. 24, the Turkey Trot part of the experience took place as the students combined to run for just over two miles. The course for the younger kids started behind the school, went into and around the outside of the baseball field and back out to a finish line. The older kids ran on the football field and the track.
Inside the gym, the PTA volunteers handed out drinks and snacks to each student and the top finishers received medals and certificates.
“The entire Wellsville Elementary took part in this amazing event. The student senate members helped me organize all of the food after it was weighed in and they just kept saying they couldn’t believe how much food we had!” George said. “The Turkey Trot was the culminating event. Our students have been working really hard during our cardiovascular unit and running every PE class leading up to this event. It was a race and there were medals handed out to the top 3 boys and girls from every grade level.”
First the stage was filled in the multi-purpose room at the school. More donations came in and backstage was filled as well.
George said this idea has been on her radar for a few years and she went to her co-workers Larry Peacock and Cameron Dye to start the project. Principal Elizabeth Sinski supported the idea.
Our principal, Liz Sinski is always supporting our PE department and all our fun and crazy ideas!” George said. “Mrs. Messing’s class did daily weigh-ins for the food.”
As for the day of the race, George said, “Thank you to the PTA for providing water and fruit for the students when they finished the race, the High School Student Athlete Advisory Committee for running the race with the kids and Tracy DeRose for coming to take photos all day.”
In just two weeks, a total of 1,882 pounds of food was donated. The breakdown:
PK – 267 LBS
K – 172 LBS
1st – 297 LBS
2nd – 154 LBS
3rd – 207 LBS
4th – 253 LBS
5th – 530 LBS (winners)
Wellsville Family Resource Coordinator Nikki Curcio Medler was able to get the food to the Wellsville Salvation Army and the Catholic Charities Food Pantries.
A breakdown of the runners:
PK-K students ran 0.25 Miles
1st – 2nd students ran 0.55 Miles
3rd – 5th students ran 0.75 Miles
Swipe right to see a slide show of the winners (see below for more photos):
George said this will become an annual event and she is thankful for the students and their families for their community service.
“Thank you to all of our students and families for making this 1st annual Turkey Trot and Food Drive truly amazing!” George said. “We couldn’t have asked for better weather and my PE ‘teacher heart’ was so happy seeing all the big smiles on the kids faces when they ran through the finish line.”
Swipe to see all the photos from the event!
