Kids wanted an outlet, love to run
Luling Elementary teacher Dana Dufrene saw students running here, running there – running everywhere they shouldn’t be.
She’s found a way to channel that energy — and after plugging away for a little while, her idea has grown beyond what she initially thought possible.
Last year, the literacy teacher and longtime fitness trainer pitched the prospect of a running club for her school to allow the students to have a constructive way to burn off all that energy. It became a reality, and today, there are 20 students comprising that club and cultivating an appreciation for fitness at an early age.
“Last year I had some concerns with kids running where they shouldn’t be,” Dufrene said. “The idea just popped up in my head that I should get them on the road. They should be able to run and run constructively. Maybe I can start a running club.”
Dufrene herself has a passion for running, a triathlete who has been a fitness trainer for 11 years.
“I thought about it and at first I was like, ‘I can’t do that,’” Dufrene said. “Then all of a sudden it was, ‘you know what? I can do that.’”
But there were other considerations to mull over, first. Dufrene wanted to do this the right way, and that meant having students wearing the right shoes and running in the right environment. She wanted to take the students out on the road and to the nearby levee to run with the river as their backdrop.
“We live right here and (the river) will always be here,” Dufrene said. “It’s powerful and inspiring, (and) such a great place to do this.”
Dufrene applied for grants to fund it, but was unsuccessful initially. She began to have doubts about the venture.
But others around her had already bought into her vision. Luling Elementary Principal Jackie Sperier encouraged Dufrene to “get on the ball” to make it happen. And fellow teacher Dottie Watson, a speech therapist and friend of Dufrene, lent her own helping hand.
“‘She (Watson) told me, ‘C’mon, we’re going in the classes and we’re going to talk this up,’” Dufrene said.
The teachers asked students to write essays detailing why they’d be interested in establishing a running club and how it might help them. Twenty of the essays were submitted with grand applications. Watson also collected $2,600 in donations from her church, while some local businesses made donations of their own.
The money was enough to buy running shoes for each student. The running club was becoming a reality—and just as it got off the ground, United Way of St. Charles provided a $5,500 grant.
“That it was our own parish … our people in the community … who supported this and helped us get going, means so much more than if we’d gotten that first grant from outside people,” Dufrene said. “I’m trying to make our community, our schools better for everybody because I live here. I’m totally invested. Now, it’s been just the best thing ever.”
John Dias, United Way executive director, said the running club will help establish healthy habits in children.
“Over the past few years especially, United Way has taken the approach of not only wanting to respond to situations once they’ve happened or once problems arise, but taking preventative measures when possible and working with preventative programs,” Dias said.
UW considers the LES running club one of those programs.
“If you start kids off young, they have better chance to take those habits through adulthood and not have those kinds of health issues later on in life,” he said. “We fund people with financial problems and in many cases those stem from health issues they’ve had.”
The running club, which meets twice a week every Monday and Friday, has been a hit since it started in December. Dufrene said the students love to run.
“Really and truly, these kids wanted an outlet,” she said. “They have wanted something that was unique. And they love to run … I have these 10 boys, they want to beat each other.
But at the same time, they’re finding out, okay, wait a second, I have to stop. They’re learning to push themselves but also the importance of proper running form and pacing yourself.”
There’s also a journaling component to the class.
Dufrene credited Sperier with the idea — that added an in-the-classroom component to the club’s time together.
“At the beginning, we obviously couldn’t go run three miles,” she said. “You have to build up to that. We had an hour and 15 minutes to utilize, and this started off our sessions. It was a great, powerful idea.”
In one of the writing sessions, the students wrote poems.
“One little boy said, when he got his new shoes, he was like a mustang running in the wind,” Dufrene said. “They wrote some beautiful things.”
The running club will participate in its first official event on March 18 as it enters the Youth Run NOLA 504K.
After that, it’s set for the United Way of St. Charles’ 21st Annual Bridge Run on April 1.
Dufrene said the experience of teaching the club has been incredibly rewarding, not only because it’s an outlet for her to share her own passion with students, but also for the positive effect the club is already having on them.
“It’s another way to release their stress,” she said. “For a lot of kids, school is not easy. They’re frustrated most of the day, and some may face challenges that you or I have probably never had to deal with. We ended up opening up a little family. I’m so excited about all of it.”
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