Konawaena High School students visited Holualoa Elementary to host a health and fitness field day in early May, according to a press release published by youth fitness instructor Joel Matsunaga on May 16.
The event, with additional support of parents, high schoolers, and community stakeholders, involved multiple physical activities, team-building challenges, lacrosse, and archery. Additionally, the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) of Holualoa extended its support with volunteers and organized a coffee and snack table as a show of teacher appreciation.
The majority of West Hawaii’s elementary schools lack physical education teachers, preventing many students from having access to organized physical activities. In response, physical education staff from Konawaena collaborated with Project No Ke Ola Pono O Nā Keiki, Holualoa Elementary School, and the Holualoa PTO to organize a field day. The collaborators were able to purchase additional athletic equipment due to the sponsorship of City Councilwoman Rebecca Villegas, ensuring that the school can have additional field days in the future.
Project No Ke Ola Pono O Nā Keiki is a teacher-led initiative aiming to help schools recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and promote strengthening of the quality of health and physical education classes. The project has coordinated over 35 wellness events for West Hawai’i public schools across two years. With unanimous support with the West Hawai’i City Council, resolutions were passed to financially assist schools in acquiring equipment, emphasizing the council members’ commitment to prioritizing Health and Physical Education in schools.
“In Konawaena, most students’ first experience with Physical Education happens in 6th grade,” Dan Curran, a PE instructor at Konawaena High School and one of the event organizers, said. “By that time they’ve missed the basics of how to move, how to throw, how to use equipment properly. A majority of my students in ninth grade could not even skip correctly! We as a school and community need to support the movement of more ‘movement’ in our schools; children who are active in their younger years have a significant advantage of staying active into their adulthood. Events like this are a step in the right direction and we look forward to continuing to be a part of the solution.”
Resolution 549-22 has allowed the Council of the County of Hawai’i to allocate Contingency Relief funds from Council District 7 to support Friends of the Future and Project No Ke Ola Pono O Nā Keiki, who host the Health and Fitness Field Day events in West Hawai’i schools. The funding will specifically aid in the purchasing of necessary athletic equipment, materials, and supplies.
