Media Coverage

Auburn Journal - Skyridge Morning Mile

News 10 Good Morning - Skyridge Olympics (VIDEO)

Auburn Journal - Rock Creek School

Douglas County, NV Record-Courier - Jacks Valley Elementary
 

Thanks To
Our Sponsors and Donors

Title Sponsor

Big George Ventures LLC - our title sponsor has funded our program to ensure financial viability for the next three years. Big George is developing eco-friendly affordable housing in the Carson Valley area. They funded a spectacular new athletic complex at Douglas High School, another at South Tahoe Middle School, startup funding for an ambitious shuttle service between Carson Valley and Lake Tahoe, numerous other fitness and health-related programs to support a healthy community, both locally and beyond. Big George Principal Dr. Ray Sidney is Running School's Vice President and passionate endurance athlete.

Premier Sponsors

Kaiser Permanente Thrive Program - This progressive health care company's Community Health Initiative supports Running School's grass roots effort to promote youth fitness and well being.
 
Globe - Former professional duathlete Mike Marckx and his board sports, footwear and apparel company has generously donated certificates for exciting, cool Globe footwear as Running School prizes.
 
Maki Heating and Air - Voted as business of the year by the Chamber of Commerce, owners Randy and Cheryl Maki are tireless promoters of Auburn charities.

Specialized Water Bottles - Chuck Robinson has allocated thousands of beautiful, custom-designed Running School water bottles for kids prizes!

Jamba Juice - Brandon Gress in Calif and Laura Alba in Nevada bring their mobile smoothie cart to the finish line and deliver kids a healthy treat as reward for a job well done! Response among recipients has been ice cold.

Clif Bar - One of the market leaders in healthy nutrition for kids. Clif's Peter Berridge has supported the program with thousands of healthy products from their new, organic Clif Kid product line, which we dispense at the finish of racing or fun runs.

Baker's Breakfast Cookies - Owner Erin Baker is an enthusiastic promoter of kids health and fitness, emphasizing the importance of healthy breakfast and providing nutritious products for every Running School participant to make this happen!

Mrs May's Natural Products - Jonathan Son has generously allocated tons of individual size snack bags in many flavors of their classic crunch products.

24 Hour Fitness - Linnell Killus has donated free membership certificates to support teachers and parent volunteers of Running School.

Runners ID.com - Larry Osborne has dispensed gift certificates for kids to order a custom ID tag with pertinent information, promoting kids safety

Email now about how we can add your company to this list of generous sponsors!

Welcome to the First Edition of the Running School Email Newsletter!

We are off and running with our six partner schools for this fall semester and the response has been outstanding! We present a mixture of competitive "Olympics" days, where kids race a half-mile (one-mile for middle schools) as well as a 40-yard sprint . Times are recorded and posted at runningschool.org, where we have links to data for each school. Our current partner schools are:

Auburn Elementary School - Auburn, CA
Cambridge Heights Elementary School - Citrus Heights, CA
Jacks Valley Elementary School - Minden, NV
EV Cain Middle School - Auburn, CA
Rock Creek Elementary - Auburn, CA
Skyridge Elementary School - Auburn, CA

We interact with a total of 3,050 students at these campuses. The program template calls for us to conduct the competitive events twice each semester, with an additional day devoted to a non-competitive timed run around a fun obstacle/agility course with music, fun and participant prizes. By tracking kids times in the distance race, we produce quantifiable data about fitness improvement in our population, particularly the at-risk kids who we aspire to bring into the Cooper Institute's Healthy Fitness Zone. At our Getting Kids Fit link you can learn the details about how we measure kids fitness.

We have generated interest from numerous other schools, both distant and near, wishing to take part in the program. We are currently devising a program where we can present a single day event that will acquaint the schools with the program components, train teachers to present effective, fun cardiovascular physical education and inspire schools to emphasize cardiovascular fitness over the long-term on their campuses. We have assembled an outstanding team for our young organization. Meet our Coaching and Office Staff , Executive Board and Advisory Board members at our web site.

Lindsay Hyatt-Barr
Inspires Hometown Kids

The school year kicked off with a series of School Assemblies to introduce the program to kids, discuss the importance of staying active and making healthy dietary choices and get them psyched to participate with an exciting 4-minute promotional video.

The assemblies featured a special guest - champion distance runner and Running School Advisory Board member Lindsay Hyatt-Barr. Lindsay is a 3-time national high school champion at 800 meters and won NCAA middle-distance championships for Stanford and Tennessee. Lindsay, who grew up in Auburn and won an unequaled four state 800-meter titles at Placer High in Auburn, spoke to her hometown kids about the fun, personal satisfaction and camaraderie available through running, placing the focus on simply doing your best instead of worrying or fearing competitive situations and how athletics can open other doors throughout life (Lindsay graduated from Stanford on a full athletic scholarship and current works in fund raising for the Stanford Athletic Department).

Skyridge Morning Mile a Big Hit!

We've launched an amazing new pilot program at our flagship school called the Skyridge Morning Mile. Principal Doris Chandler (Running School Advisory Board member) has allocated the first 10 minutes of the school day to running. The early bell rings, kids drop their backpacks and walk, jog or run at their own pace around the new half-mile Skyridge Fitness Trail that we built this summer circling campus. Teachers and many parents join the kids on the trail.

The Morning Mile and other fitness programs at Skyridge have helped make fitness a central element of the school culture. The result: 86% of Skyridge kids meet the national "Healthy Fitness Zone" standard for distance running, 99%+ improve their half-mile race times over the course of the year, with an aggregate improvement of 25% and eleven kids exceeded the 100th percentile standard for the half-mile race. We aim to inspire other schools to implement a Morning Mile program; logistics are simple - a few parents volunteer for safety along the course for only ten minutes a day - but the impact is tremendous.

The Auburn Journal did a feature story on the Morning Mile Oct 2nd!

KCRA Channel 3 Sacramento (NBC network affiliate) chronicled the event recently in a program highlighted by the stunning visual of kids pouring onto the trail from all directions of campus to begin their exercise. Check our web site to watch the video soon!

We Appreciate Your Donation
Please consider a tax deductible donation to our 501(c)3 non-profit organization, so that we may serve as many kids as possible. Our streamlined, minimal overhead, kids-focused budget equates an annual cost of $29 per student for the complete program. A few clicks at our on-line donation form is all it takes (you can also download form and mail a donation). We sincerely appreciate your contribution of any comfortable amount, whether it's a token or a fortune. Please contact me by email or phone (530-888-9911) for more information, thanks! 

Brad Kearns

Executive Director, Running School, Inc.