First Oak Ridge Schools on the Run 5k is Saturday, March 21

The first Oak Ridge Schools on the Run 5k is on Saturday, March 21. Organizers want to make it an annual event.

The 5k is sponsored by Oak Ridge Schools Office of Coordinated School Health. The race will take place on March 21 at Melton Lake Park. Race-day registration will open at 6:30 a.m. at the Melton Lake Pavilion, and the race will begin promptly at 8 a.m. Organizers encourage race participants to arrive about 30 minutes before the start of the race to ensure smooth registration.

Registration is $10 for students and $20 for school and city employees, and standard registration is $25. The price includes a race‐day T‐shirt and a participation ribbon.

“This is not a fundraiser, but an event sponsored by ORS Coordinated School Health that will help us reach our goals of increasing physical activity opportunities for our students, employees, and the community,” a press release said. (For more information regarding the goals of CSH, please see the last paragraph of this release.)

You may register early online or contact Jenifer Laurendine at (865) 425‐9028 to register. Race‐day registration will also be available. To register online, visit www.oakridgetrackclub.org or visit this link. Information regarding the race will be sent home to all Oak Ridge students next week.

Timing will be provided by Oak Ridge Track Club. Awards will be given to the top three finishers in each age group (1‐10, 11‐14, 15‐19, 20‐29, 30‐39, 40‐49, 50‐59, and 60+), overall male/female, masters male/female, grand masters male/female, and senior grand masters male/female.

“We are hoping that our students, employees and community members take advantage of this event and come together for a healthy activity,” said Laurendine of ORS Coordinator of Coordinated School Health. “We want to continue to provide these opportunities for our community and emphasize not only the physical activity aspect, but also the coming together as a school and a community.”

Coordinated School Health is not a program, but is a systematic approach to promoting student health that emphasizes needs assessment, evaluation, and planning based on data, sound science, and analysis of gaps and redundancies in school health programming, the press release said.

The CSH approach consists of eight major components. By definition, all Coordinated School Health Components work together to improve the lives of students and their families. Although these components are listed separately, it is their composite that allows CSH to have significant impact. The eight components include: health education, health services, counseling, psychological and social services, nutrition, physical education/physical activity, school staff wellness, healthy school environment, and student/parent/community involvement.