Thursday, May 21, 2009

Catching up...Just in time.

Man, we’ve had a ton going on here at Davis this past month! Everything from Field Day, to fitness testing and fund raising to Chipper Jones! Yes, Just incase your child didn’t tell you- we had a little visit from Atlanta Braves 3rd baseman Chipper Jones.

I won’t go in to all the details of why he came (if you look back one post you will see why). I will just tell you that he was a really great guy, and the kids LOVED the assembly. Chipper spoke to the entire school for a few minutes. He explained his connection to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF), and then he fielded some questions that were submitted ahead of time by some Davis students. After that he posed for a few photos, and then had to head out. He had a game that night at Turner Field!

Brave's Mascot "Homer"


Me, Chipper, Jenny (my wife), and Bryce!


Well now that you know Chipper came out to visit I guess you can figure out that our school won the CFF fundraiser competition! Our school raised $6,000 for the CFF. I was very impressed. What is even more impressive is that we did it in one week of school, just 5 short days! We had 2 classes that stood out in our fundraiser. They both happen to be 5th grade classes: Mrs. Watson’s class raised $640 and Mrs. Hintz’s class just nudged them out to take the top spot with a total of $652. Both of these classes got to meet Chipper and have their picture taken with him.

Before I go on to the next topic I have to say one thing- Thank you. As most of you know, my son was born in July 2008, and was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) at 3 weeks of age. We got his diagnosis right at the end of the first week of school. It was not an easy thing to hear. Once my wife and I had some time to let it sink in, we both felt like we needed to do our part as CF parents. One of my ideas was to do a fundraiser (to take the place of our normal PE fundraiser for the American Heart Association). I wasn’t quite sure how successful it would be, but I wanted to give it a shot. I never thought we would raise 6,000 dollars in 5 days. I can’t wait to do this again next year…and have Chipper visit us again!

Parents, thank you very much. I was amazed by your generosity, and excited that the Davis family was able to help in the fight against CF.

Next topic- Field Day!

Field Days were a blast! I know we ran into a little it of bad weather on the first day, but we made it work! We moved events into empty classrooms all around the school. The K-2 graders seemed to not even know the difference. We did catch a little break in the weather for the 3rd and 4th graders. We were able to get them out side and stick to our normal field day activities. On the morning of 5th grade field day we were a little nervous, but the weather ended up holding out just in time!

I do have to say a HUGE thank you to my parent volunteers who came and helped run events! We really couldn’t do it without you! Hopefully we can get all of you back again next year. I do have to say a VERY special thank you to Mrs. Georges. She really did all the work to make these days happen. A quick bit of background- I was stranded in Orlando FL on a weekend vacation that ended up lasting until Tuesday night at midnight…thanks to some major car trouble! While I was stuck down there Jenny was feverishly working to get things ready for Field Days! So, if you see Mrs. Georges in the hallway tell her thanks for all her hardwork!

Last thing- Fitness Testing

The last couple of weeks we have been squeezing in our fitness testing! We are tracking each student on 5 fitness tests- sit and reach, pacer, pushups, shoulder stretch, and trunk lift. For more details on the tests you can go to the fitness gram web site: http://www.fitnessgram.net/

I hope everyone has a safe summer! Be sure to stay active!!

Coach Jones

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