ROSEMONT RUNNERS
A third of school’s students in club
I thought 20 kids would show up. Then they just kept coming and coming.
Three noon-hours a week, the Rosemont Community School playground becomes a racetrack.
Every lap of roughly 500 metres earns a Popsicle stick for each of the dozens of runners. The goal is to collect a minimum of three sticks, which the children do eagerly — some with arms and legs flailing, a couple in too-large Rosemont Roadrunners jerseys, and at least one wearing rubber boots instead of sneakers.
With every lap, the students earn words of encouragement or a high five from their vice-principal, Kimberly Brown.
She started the club in the spring after city hall presented an opportunity.
A friend suggested Brown would be interested in SaskTel’s sponsorship funding, which would allow 30 students to participate in the Mayor’s Run/Walk for Fitness.
“I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted a running club, this is perfect,’ ” said Brown.
“I thought 20 kids would show up,” she added. “Then they just kept coming and coming.”
Since running doesn’t require any special equipment, the club is something any student can join — and about one in three students have.
A new runner on Monday made the club membership an even 75. Rosemont School’s total population is about 260.
“Every time I come out, I just don’t quite believe it that all these kids show up three times a week to run. It’s still pretty shocking to me,” said Brown.
The club meets on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, supervised by Brown and her fellow coaches, Grade 7/8 teacher Justin McKay, Grade 6/7 teacher Jeff Wisniewski, and educational assistant Darrell Levesque.
With the Mayor’s Run approaching, Zoey Yost-Healy isn’t too worried.
“I’m excited. It’s going to be pretty easy. I’ve run 9K, so 3K’s not that bad,” said the Grade 8 student, one of the club’s senior members.
Yost-Healy’s goal within two years is to run the full Queen City Marathon.
Her love of running predates the club, but she enjoys running with others — even though the younger kids “always try and run past me, so I don’t beat them,” she said laughing.
Ten-year-old Louise Pascasio has a goal of overtaking a very specific older student — her 12-yearold sister.
“I want to be just like my sister,” said Pascasio. “Sometimes she runs so fast … she’s so far that I can’t even see her and I’m so slow.”
Among the youngest runners, six-year-old Shiloh Sugar looks up to her big brother Sage.
“I like running. It’s my favourite thing to do,” she said.
The Mayor’s Run is not the club’s first race. Some students participated in the five-kilometre Cardiac Care race in May — 10-year-old William Walters-Jensen was one.
His favourite part about that race? “Running and beating Ms. Brown,” he said, laughing.
“That’s only because I let him,” Brown joked in reply.
In addition to fostering what she hopes is a lifelong love of fitness, Brown said the running club has helped build school community.
With students in grades 1 through 8 as members, the younger children have become comfortable with the older ones, which creates a sense of belonging.
Further, Brown said, running promotes mental health, by way of exercise and talking out your problems with a running buddy in a nonthreatening environment.
Brown hopes to keep the club’s momentum going. As they’d like to do more races, she said a challenge will be paying for runners’ registrations.
The Mayor’s Run is Sunday, 9 a.m., starting from and finishing at city hall.