Olympic Day promotes spirit, competition, no schoolwork

There were shouts of “Go, eighth-graders, go!” and “Kin-der-garten! Kin-der-garten!” as about 250 kids took to the fields on Friday morning, May 30 at Holy Redeemer School in Montrose for the third annual Olympic Games Day.

The event was coordinated by eighth grade teacher Nelson Wong and is a way to build team spirit and competition among the young people.

“We have a lot of games and a lot of fun and it’s a great day,” Wong said.

The activities pitted grade levels against other grades and united older students with the little kids.

“We’re a big family here,” said Eva Dulcich, an eighth-grader who participated in several activities with her own class as well as helping out with the first and second grade children’s competitions. “It’s really fun because we’re really close to the littler kids and they know we’re supporting them so they get all pumped up,” Dulcich said. “I love the Olympic games.”

Several parents came out to watch their children demonstrate their athletic abilities including Yvonne Achterman, who said her children, Rachel, 12, and Jordan, 10, were excited about the event all week long. “They kept saying, ‘Mom, you’re going to be there, right?’ so, of course, I had to be here,” she said with a laugh.

Achterman’s husband, Ray, is one of the school’s track coaches and Rachel and Jordan are involved in track with their dad. “So, hopefully all that track training will pay off,” she said.

In addition to gunny sack and tricycle races, the “Sponge Bob Marathon” — in which two lines of youths passed a wet sponge over their heads and squeezed excess water into soda pop bottles in hopes of being the team to first fill their bottle — and the tug of war were perhaps the most highly competitive events.

Jennifer Brandon, fifth grade teacher, said she was worried for her class of 17 students prior to the tug of war competition, since the opposing grade level had more than 25 kids. “But, they said only 15 on a team, so this is more evenly balanced,” she said.

However, moments later, Brandon was laughingly consoling her students as the sixth-graders pulled them across the centerline.

There were cheers, laughter and shouts of victory later as the eighth grade youths took on and defeated the seventh-graders and then the sixth-graders as well.

Megan Minter got her class of second-graders to chant “Eighth grade! Eighth grade!” during many of the activities. “My sister, Melissa is an eighth-grader,” Megan explained.

Second-grader Jared Linsel-Janoian was all smiles after his team won the tricycle race. Jared said he had a great time at the games and he wishes the school held them more often. “It was fun,” he said. “We didn’t have any school work today.”