Big Grassy students raise $2,100 with Jump Rope for Heart

By Steve Niskala
Contributor

On Tuesday May 22, 2008, the students of Pegamigaabo School in Big Grassy First Nation participated in the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s “Jump Rope for Heart”. All sixty-two students in the school participated in the morning event. They displayed their jump rope skills and, more importantly, demonstrated a high level of physical activity in the school gym. The event lasted approximately two hours and the students enjoyed every minute of the difficult feat.
Prior to the event, the students asked the community to donate pledges to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The students collectively raised an astonishing $2100, thanks to the generous donations from the members of Big Grassy, Big Island, and surrounding communities. The top two amounts raised were from Ethan Major ($301) and Jordan Morrison ($220), both of whom earned the opportunity to throw a pie in the face of Mr. Niskala as a reward. However, all of the students did extremely well collecting pledges and should be congratulated for their hard work.
The students of Pegamigaabo School should be recognized for taking action towards a very serious epidemic in heart disease. The money raised will go towards helping to treat those diagnosed with heart disease, as well as to aid research for heart disease prevention. The students are now advocates for promoting physical activity and they urge the members of their communities to follow suite. I would like to thank all those people who donated pledges and all of the volunteers who helped make our “Jump Rope for Heart” a success.