Students jump rope for heart

Montgomery Elementary students jumped all over heart disease on Friday. They also hula hooped, hopscotched and worked on their physical education skills to fight the disease.

Oh yes, they also raised more than $3,200 for the American Heart Association, which funds research, programs and education to fight heart disease and stroke, the nation’s number 1 and 4 killers. 

The Jump Rope for Heart was held during the students’ physical education classes. Teacher Adam Hanson incorporated the event into his curriculum by setting up different stations in which the students rotated, a version of musical chairs. When the music stopped, everyone rotated to the next station, so by the end of the class everyone had participated in everything.

Stations included single jump rope, double jump rope, hula hoops, criss-cross individual jump rope, and hop scotch.

Jump Rope for Heart is  co-sponsored by the American Heart Association and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Before each class, Hanson made sure students knew why they were jumping rope to beat heart disease.

“Why are we jumping rope?” he asked students. “To get exercise and exercise your heart, to raise money for people who have heart disease and for research to help doctors come up with medicines to fight heart disease, and to eat right and stay healthy.”

He also reminded students other ways to stay healthy  are to drink a lot of water and get enough sleep. 

Hanson said the participation of collecting pledges prior to the event was higher than in year’s past. 

“I know we had more students raise money than in the past, and more participants than in the past,” he said.