Idlewild Elementary
5th grader

Pennies 4 Patients...Making A Difference

At my school, and many other schools, we do a program that is called Pennies 4 Patients. Pennies 4 Patients is a program that gives students a chance to get involved in helping children with Leukemia and Lymphoma. What happens is students bring pennies or any other coins or dollar bills that they have at home to school, with their parents’ permission. Then the Student Council treasurer counts all of the money to get a total amount.

Now, you might ask, “What is Leukemia or Lymphoma?” Well, they both, along with Myeloma and Hodgkin’s disease, are cancers that originate in the bone marrow or lymphatic tissues. This is caused by an acquired genetic injury to the DNA of a single cell. It then becomes abnormal and multiplies. This is very bad for the body.

As you can tell, this is a serious condition that we need to help prevent. So, all of the money that we collect at school goes to research, patient services, advocacy and education.

To spread the word about this Student Council project, we sent home reminders, talked about it on the school announcements. We even had one of the members of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society come to speak to the students. We quote in one of our reminders, “We see this as a tremendous opportunity for children to demonstrate their passion for supporting their classmates and families in their community.”

I’m glad to say that we successfully made $2,626.42 at Idlewild Elementary. We helped so many people with these conditions. And remember, every penny makes a difference!

The Way to Physical Fitness

So many people are worried about their health and fitness. Which is a good thing because if you exercise and try to stay healthy, you will probably not get a heart attack or be overweight. One of the best ways to stay fit on a daily basis is to play a sport.

Eddie McGrath is a 16-year-old baseball player for the East Mecklenburg High School baseball team. To prevent injuries during a baseball game or practice, he and the team do many stretches and warm ups before they go out on the field. They do a lot of upper body stretches – which are your arms, back and chest. But they also do leg stretches, including the calf, hamstring and groin. As for warm ups, they do throwing progressions, long toss and short toss, and they RUN. Surprisingly, they don’t do as much running as you would think. But the running training really depends on how many bases you hit.

Things can happen if you don’t stretch or warm up well. If you don’t stretch well, you could get a pulled muscle and hurt arms. Did you know that baseball players are supposed to ice their throwing arm after every game? I know I didn’t. You can also get cuts and bruises from sliding into plates. To recover, you have to rest, stretch and put ice on your injuries.

Eddie has been playing baseball for ten years – ever since he was 4! He plays second base. And, his favorite part of the game is getting congratulated from making a good play. He plays for the East Meck team and another team called the Carolina Twisters, that plays at selected tournaments. He told me, “To be a good baseball player, you need to be in good physical condition, be a team player, have good sportsmanship and have good hand-eye coordination. You need to know how to run fast. And you need to be lean and have strong muscles.”

Eddie told me how much fun he has playing ball with his friends, doing his own thing, and staying fit while doing it. That’s why playing sports is one of the best ways to stay healthy and fit.

What Animal Am I Most Like?

“You look like a monkey, and you smell like one too!” Does that describe me? No – but I am like a monkey in many ways. First of all, monkeys are very intelligent and love to be problem-solvers like I am. I also love to be around people and be social like monkeys love to hang around their buddies. Climbing trees and playing around are also some specialties that monkeys and I share. Plus, just like all monkeys, I am a very curious being.

I am not bashful at all – kind of like monkeys speaking their minds (or expressing their minds with behaviors). Like mostly all young monkeys, I was a Cu-tie-Pie when I was a baby. The last thing is probably that I like to throw poop at people – NOT!!!! There are probably more ways I am like a monkey, but these are the reasons that really stand out.