In spite of threatening skies, the Lytle ISD School Health Advisory Council (SHAC) staged a successful 500 Mile Walk/Run event Saturday to promote community health. Over 30 participants logged miles on the Walter H. Joyce, Jr. Stadium track to add to those accumulated by the Elementary students and staff earlier in the week.
“With support from Elementary principal, Harry Piles, we were able to log over 450 miles going into the event,” reported Sandra Jopling, SHAC co-chair. “In order to promote health and exercise to our students and their families, teachers from the elementary, along with their classes, kicked off the event earlier in the week, so we were ready to surpass our 500 mile goal easily.”
The event involved local businesses and community members as well. The goal of SHAC is to encourage everyone- families, community members, school staff and students- to improve their health through exercise. Several families and individuals participated, as well as representatives from the High school track team and Cub Scouts. Those on the track were entertained by local musician Matt Hawk, who performed throughout the event. Hawk, a Lytle high school graduate, willingly gave up his Saturday morning to join the event, and several walkers added a few dance steps to their route.
Other contributors to the event included HEB Plus, Lytle State Bank, Bobby’s Used Cars, Texas Farm Bureau, Community National Bank, and Brush Country Realty. The SHAC committee members noted that the community support was extremely crucial to the success of the event.
J.W. Petrash, a SHAC community member, said, “Our donors went out of their way to support us with fresh fruit, cold water bottles, gift cards, cups, koozies, and other prizes for the walkers. Even more, many businesses showed up and participated – we couldn’t have asked for more.”
The SHAC is a group of individuals representing the community, families, and school district employees. The purpose is to provide advice to the district on coordinated school health programming and its impact on student health and learning. Every independent school system is required by law to have a School Health Advisory Council. Other activities sponsored by the Lytle ISD SHAC include Shattered Dreams and annual Family Health Nights.
According to Jopling, the success of this event was due in large part to the SHAC members who supported and sponsored the event and their behind-the-scenes efforts. Jopling concluded, “I’d like to thank all those who were involved with and participated in this event. Thank you to Mrs. Michelle Smith and the school board for allowing us the use of the track and to Ms. Van De Walle and her class for the commercial they created. We also want to thank the art students from Miss Gomez’s class who submitted logos. With the addition of media and PR, we look forward to next year’s event being bigger and better.”