Gresham Community School took its mission of wellness and invited the community April 22 to take part in healthy activities that help to bring everyone together.
Children and adults alike gathered to play pickleball, cornhole, board games and cards. They also got the chance to learn how to use an automated external defibrillator while also learning that healthy activity should be part of everyone’s life.
Superintendent Newell Haffner noted that he and his staff were in a meeting and trying to figure out some activity for the community.
“We do stuff for kids all the time, and we thought about doing something for the community,” Haffner said. “At one point, I said, ‘What about doing a kickball tournament, just to do something.’ That’s when we started talking about the wellness night.”
Pickleball came up as one of the activities due to the new pickleball court set up at one of the village parks, according to Haffner. He noted that gym teacher Tim Wild has been teaching pickleball to students during gym classes, but this was an opportunity to take the learning outside the traditional school day.
“We were just trying to expand the knowledge of pickleball,” Haffner said.
Then Kyla Heiman, the school’s nurse, recommended educating children and parents alike on the defibrillator, according to Haffner. There are several at the school, and they are becoming more common in municipal buildings, schools and businesses.
“After you get one (wellness night) done, you do talk about whether or not to do it next year. Do you change anything?” Haffner said.
One challenge is that the gym is used so much outside of the school day that it might be difficult to change or expand the wellness night, Haffner said.
Wild noted that it was important to him that the district do more to get children out and active.
“This gives them an opportunity to be active,” Wild said. “Plus, they get to interact with other people. There’s a variety of activities, different things for them to try out and opportunities from AED to use to playing pickleball, which is growing in popularity these days.”
Besides learning and being active, Wild wants people to have fun with the wellness night activities.
“The kids are having fun. They’re laughing. They’re going from station to station to try different things out,” Wild said. “Some are playing things they’ve played for the first time and asking questions on how it’s done. It’s giving them something to try that they’ve never done before, and it’s giving them a good experience.”
Wild noted the lower turnout might coincide with the warm weather enticing people outside for their activities, but he’s hopeful that the school can do the wellness night again.
“Maybe in the middle of winter might be an opportunity to get people out when they’re stuck inside,” Wild said.
Charli Gollnow, 7, is about to place a pad onto a dummy to start the automatic external defibrillator with the help of school nurse Kyla Heiman during Gresham Community School’s wellness night April 22. (Lee Pulaski | NEW Media)
