True Sport Day With Mr. J and His Class

Mr. J participating in the relay during True Sport Play Day

I had the opportunity last week to volunteer with Mr. J's class while they attended a True Sport play day at a local community center.  The activities took place outdoors in a ball diamond, and the kids had a lot of fun.

We started with a small talk from the two women involved in organizing the day, and then we heard from two athletes.  The first athlete was Alexandra McGee.  Her event is the Canoe Slalom. It was fun to hear her talk about how she got into the sport, but what was even more interesting to me (and quite concerning, actually) is that the Olympics does not include women for that event.  We are in 2016, and only men are allowed to participate.  She mentioned that they are hoping to have it changed for the 2020 Olympics, but so far there is no word.  This really, really saddens me.

The other athlete we met was Andrew Heffernan. Andrew is a Guide for visually impaired runners. It was neat to hear about how he helps the athletes. They even blindfolded Alexandra and did a small demonstration so we could see what it was like.

When that was finished, all the schools were sent to different station to participate in some events (limbo, relay, human ladder, and a few others, including getting to talk to the athletes and get their autographs)

(I took lots of photos of the different events, but with so many children in the pictures, I am not comfortable posting them here)