Bryan Elementary School, PMC team up on 5K event

Published 5:27 pm Monday, October 22, 2007

By Ashley McCleery

The North Jefferson News



Bryan Elementary and Physicians Medical Center Carraway are giving north Jefferson residents the chance to lace up their running shoes or mount their bikes at the third annual 5K family fun run/bike and health fair.

From 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, participants can run/walk/bike the 5K and also enjoy live entertainment while perusing Carraway’s health fair booths. This collaboration will be a first this year, but Rebecca Recke, Bryan Elementary School’s physical education teacher and coordinator of the event, said it’s a great expansion of her initial idea.

Two years ago, Recke’s vision was to promote wellness in the community, especially because child obesity was becoming more of a problem. Since she and some of the other physical education instructors participate in road races and 5K runs, she decided a community wide run would be just the ticket.

“In our area, we [the physical education teachers] felt the community was probably unaware of the races,” Recke said. “So, we thought this would be a great way to push families and children to exercise together because we can only do so much in 30 minutes a day.”

Although only 50 people came to the event last year, Recke has big hopes for this year.

Because the event is on a Sunday afternoon, Recke said families should have fewer conflicts, especially with sporting events.

In anticipation of the big crowd, Recke has already purchased 244 T-shirts. “We’re real pumped. We have great expectations,” Recke said.

Carraway’s participation in the event this year is also fueling Recke’s expectations. Since Carraway is interested in building a new hospital in the north Jefferson area, this event will be their first step in becoming more involved in the community. And their gift to the community will be free health screenings, reinforcing the day’s theme.

“It is our responsibility to take care of our kids’ health, but also to take care of our health so that they won’t be taking care of us,” Recke said.

To compliment the booths, several guests will share their personal struggles and victories in dealing with kidney transplants, breast cancer and colon cancer. “We keep hearing about people who go through things, and we think it’s a death sentence,” Recke said. “In every disease, there’s always hope and that’s the message we want to send out.”

But, after this day full of exercise and activities, a massage therapist will be on hand to knead sore muscles and relieve any extra tension. “We’re trying to make it a fun Sunday afternoon,” Recke said.