This year’s theme was “Lock It Up.”
Students from Olson Middle School enjoyed the school’s fifth annual Field Day last Thursday.
At the event, students were treated to a variety of games including ping pong, a bean bag toss, wiffle ball, speedball — a mixture of handball and soccer — capture the fish — they didn’t have a flag, so they used a fish — volleyball, kickball and gaga. The event also had a variety of “backyard games,” including ladderball, washers, spikeball, Kan jam and bottle flipping.
This year’s field day theme was “Lock it Up,” which was all about responsible use of prescription drugs, and how they should be locked away in an area so others can’t take them.
The event featured state trooper Lance Lamberth, who gave the kids a quick lecture on the dangers of drugs and talked about “the importance of risky behavior, [and] educating them on the consequences and how awful it is to their bodies,” he said.
“It’s important to know that they know this because, especially going into the high school, where there’s going to be a lot of outside negative influences and just for them to be educated and to know that no is no. The difference between right and wrong and just making positive life choices,” Lamberth said about his speech.
“I’m pretty sure it’s going to help a lot of the kids here because I’m sure a lot of people are probably struggling at home,” student Meera Johnson said about Lamberth’s speech. “You also have personal issues that nobody really knows about. And when someone else here knows what’s going on, it might help you get through a hard time.”
Lectures aside, Field Day was still mostly about fun.
Student Kaya Brock said gaga was her favorite game. Other favorites ranged from kickball, to capture the fish, to speedball.
Another student, Kari Brock, called the day “fun.” Why? “Because you get to do a lot of activities instead of staying inside and doing boring math,” she said.
No! Math? Boring?!
“I mean, it’s useful but it’s boring,” she said.
The kids had fun, but no field day is complete without a few injuries.
“I was playing capture the fish over there and I tried to tag somebody and my wrist flew back,” student Maddie Penna said as she held an ice pack against her hand.
Still, Principal Sue Grosser was proud of what the children were learning.
“It’s building good citizenship, camaraderie, team building, and sets the tone for what we really are about here as a school,” she said. “It’s cross-grade level, and we have a fifth- through eighth-grade school, so it gets all the kids together for a fun day and everybody works together to plan it. It’s good for the staff, too. Everybody has to pitch in and we want to. The music department gets the music going, and today our music teacher had to be out for a personal reason so we got the kids running the show.”
Several Seneca High School students from Community Service Club were on hand to help with the day’s festivities. Among them were Kelli O’Keefe, Gabby Mirassol, Jacob Walters. Bruce Kirschbaum, Dustin Termi and Colin Boisvert.
T-shirts for the event were provided by the Tabernacle Municipal Alliance.
