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As a new initiative to keep its students fit, Lawson Elementary School in the Hazelwood School District recently began using the Mighty Milers Program.

To date, at least 95 second through fifth grade students have signed up to participate in the club, which takes place three days a week, before or after school. Students set fitness goals to “get moving,” keep track of their total miles in a database, and earn prizes for the number of miles they run or walk.

Sarah Caswell, a kindergarten teacher, coordinates Mighty Milers. “Mighty Milers is a good thing for students to do before and after school. It’s free and it teaches kids how to take care of themselves,” she said.

During a recent session, Caswell and other staff members split the students into two groups. The younger students ran or walked through the school hallways while the older students ran or walked around the campus. After 15 minutes or so, they switched.

Before the club started, Caswell measured the hallways and campus perimeter using a measuring wheel provided by the Mighty Milers. Inside, students must run or walk each hallway five times for one mile. Outside, it takes five laps of the campus to equal a mile.

A point Caswell emphasized is that students in Mighty Milers do not have to run.

“We have walkers, too, so we have games that differentiate between running and walking, but no one is singled out for just walking,” she said. Caswell added these games also teach students to pace themselves. In the future, Caswell hopes to expand the program to include kindergarten and first grade.

The club has only existed for about a month, so the focus has been getting the students used to running and pacing themselves. Soon, a healthy lifestyle component will be added, said Caswell.

As incentives, students earn membership cards and certificates during the program. At each marathon milestone – 26.2, 52.4, 78.6 and 104.8 – they will receive special medals. Classes will receive a congratulatory poster for accumulating miles at three milestones – 500, 1,000 and 2,500. Additional incentive packages, which include items such as pencils, stickers and T-shirts, can be purchased. At the start of every program year, student mileage will reset to zero.

“The good thing about the program is it’s not rigid. It’s not, ‘You have to do this, this and this,’” said Caswell.

Story provided by Hazelwood School District Communications Department.