A group of Bronxville High School athletes fueled up their peers with knowledge about the benefits of leading a healthy and active lifestyle when they prepared them nutritious snacks and set up a variety of physical activities on May 17.
Andrew Babyak, Brian de Paul, Kevin Formato and Morgan Frayne, who are students in Jeremy Goldstein’s Humanities Research class, were tasked with completing a community service project that was meaningful to them and would fulfill the needs of others. The four students took to the field to teach middle school and high school members of the life skills classes at the Bronxville School how to lead healthy lifestyles.
“When you’re eating the right things and staying active, it keeps your mind right and you’re feeling better throughout the day,” said sophomore Andrew Babyak, who plays lacrosse and also swims. “Working with other kids and seeing how much they’re enjoying the stations has made it really worthwhile for us.”
The students prepared strawberry smoothies, gave out healthy snacks to their peers and set up a variety of activities that included zumba dancing, jump rope, hula hoops and an obstacle course that had students weave in and out of cones, kick a soccer ball, run through a ladder and shoot a ball into the net with a hockey stick. For their project, they worked with the nonprofit Fuel Up to Play 60, which is sponsored by the NFL and National Dairy Council, and attended a conference in Manhattan to learn how they could make a difference in their local community.
The Humanities Research class was developed several years ago by social studies Bill Meyer, who is on a leave of absence. Goldstein, who replaced Meyer this semester, said he was proud of the work of his students, some of whom shed light on urban planning and spoke up for animal rights. He said that all projects played an important part in fulfilling the Bronxville Promise.
“Knowledge is important in its own right, but as the Bronxville Promise makes clear, knowledge must be combined with tangible work in our communities if we are to raise engaged citizens,” Goldstein said. “It is not enough to sit in the classroom. It is not enough to tell a student what’s right and wrong, what service is and isn’t. They must live these ideas.”
Photo Caption: Bronxville High School athletes took to the field on May 17 to teach middle school and high school members of the life skills classes at the Bronxville School how to lead healthy lifestyles.
Photo courtesy of the Bronxville Union Free School District