Jumping Against Diabetes...It's a Native Thing!" Jumping Against Diabetes...It's a Native Thing!" Tonight March 6,2007 at 6pm the Charles George Gym at the Cherokee Elementary School will be filled with the pitter patter of little feet. Six hundred K-6 th grade students have answered the challenge of their elementary coaches to raise $25,000 in one of the schools most popular events “Jumping Against Diabetes…It's a Native Thing.”
Diabetes affects 1 in 4 Cherokee Indians so most of our students are jumping for their loved ones. One of our students, Miss Crowe wrote this about the event, “I love Jumping Against Diabetes because the money we raise goes to help care for diabetes. This is special to me because my Grandma has diabetes and I wish she could be cured. Jumping is hard but I got used to it. We jump in front of a lot of people. We do double dutch too! Jumping rope is a lot of fun.”
Last year the students raised an amazing $31,000! The school donates 15% of what they collect to the American Diabetes Association for Diabetes research. The remaining proceeds are divided with in the community for the prevention of diabetes.
Every year the top fundraiser gets to throw a pie in Assistant Principal Robert Thomason's face. This year as an extra incentive additional elementary staff has agreed to participate in five new challenges set fourth for the students. If $34.000 is raised 1 st grade teacher Mr. Lackey will get a Mohawk. If $35,000 is raised Coach Castorena will dye her hair blue. If $36,000 is raised Coach Arkansas will dye her hair orange. If $37,000 is raised Coach Maney will wear a pink jumpsuit for a whole week. If $38,000 is raised Elementary School Principal Dr. Charles Easton will shave his head!
We are extremely proud of our staff and students for the amazing effort they put into this annual event. We thank everyone in the community who supports the fight against diabetes and the students of Cherokee Elementary School .