During the months of May and June, the Keene Elm City Rotary club delivered more than 600 pairs of New Balance sneakers to second graders at 27 schools in the Monadnock region as part of our Follow ME (Move Everyday) Sneakers project. In addition, we brought frisbees and jump ropes for more than 630 third graders we were unable to visit last year due to pandemic-related school closures and gifted each school with a set of double dutch ropes!
The Follow ME Sneakers project was developed to encourage kids and families in our region to be physically active. During our school visits, we taught students the “Follow ME” dance, choreographed by Kristen Leach of the New Hampshire Dance Institute, and then we all danced along to the Follow ME song (written and performed by Peter Siegel, music teacher at Symonds School) and video.
This is one of our signature projects and requires many volunteers along with support from school nurses and teachers in collecting shoe sizes and helping fit all of the kids. We were thrilled to be back in the schools, and thank everyone for their contributions in making this year’s month-long project a huge success.
If you’d like to join in on the fun, you can view the Follow ME video here.