As part of the school’s annual Wellness Walk last month at George McVey Elementary School, students and teachers stepped out of the classroom for an outdoor lesson.
“It’s the best,” kindergarten teacher Shana Jalfin said of the event.
“It’s so important that you instill in them that they need to be healthy, exercise, clean themselves, and eat healthy food. It encompasses so many things — and it’s not just this week, it’s every day.”
During the event, classes of students walked, jogged, and ran laps around the school’s field, reinforcing lessons about eating good food, avoiding substance abuse, and exercising.
“One of the most important things to learn is fitness, making safe decisions, and living a healthy lifestyle,” said Leonard Minerva, assistant principal of McVey Elementary.
Students’ parents were in attendance, taking photos of their children adventuring across the field.
The Wellness Walk, part of a broader Wellness Week at McVey, helps raise awareness for personal health among students, and encourage families to talk to their children about being healthy.
“We invited the families in, and we made it a celebration,” Minerva said. “We want to show health is important to us, and we want it to be important with the parents and make it an ongoing topic at home.”
The Wellness Walk is an annual tradition for schools in the East Meadow Union Free School District. It is inspired by Red Ribbon Week, the national anti-drug campaign by the National Family Partnership, which runs during a week in late October, usually ending on Halloween.
“This leads to Halloween, which, of course, is when people need to be safe, either with eating or other activities,” Minerva said. “This is a time of year when we always want to make sure we point out healthy and safe choices.”
At McVey, educators expanded the scope of the project to focus on health, according to Kerry Anne Dunne, principal of George McVey Elementary School.
“Red Ribbon Week is all about teaching children not to get involved in substance abuse,” Dunne said.
“What that really also means is they have to understand wellness. It’s really a week dedicated to positive choices and preventative measures so that students take what we’re giving them and are able to apply it later on.
“We celebrate the week to give all sorts of other coping skills. And this will bleed into our Mental Health Month in May where we celebrate strategies to promote mental health.”
Social Worker Theresa Arnone led anti-vaping initiatives for the school and brings in speakers for Mental Health Month. She helped organize the school’s plans for Wellness Week.
The Wellness Walk is “based on presentations that they’ve had during the course of the week, and enrichment that they’ve had from us, and assemblies that they’ve had over the years,” Arnone said.
“East Meadow is a really supportive community, they come together to support us educators and the children in all of our endeavors,” she said. “I love that the parents came together to celebrate these children that work hard every day.”
Prior walks have taken kids to march around the neighborhood, Arnone said. Since the coronavirus, walks have been confined to school grounds.
“Still, the same message is heard, whether it’s around the community or in our backyard,” she said.
The walk is made possible through cooperation with the Parent Teacher Association, which connects families to educators to create community events.
“A part of it is just an easy way for kids to get out and exercise and be heart healthy,” PTA Wellness Walk Chairperson Danielle Mathis said. “It’s something they can do no matter where they are.”
“It’s all about the kids,” PTA Past President Jennifer Reinhardt said. “There’s a ton of parents here today, and that’s very good engagement between the school and community. They love to participate, and we really love it here.”
