Spirit of the Games

 
Olympic fever is spreading with Holy Cross School being the latest to be bitten by the sports bug Friday.

The students participated in 11 sports – demonstrated in Vancouver’s Winter Games these last two weeks in February – from luge and biathlon to figure skating and moguls. Teacher and librarian Carol Pascuzzo said the school felt it was one way for the students to experience Olympic winter sports.

"We also felt it was important to show our pride in Canada and support our Olympic athletes," she said.

Holy Cross School followed a program model from the Thunder Bay District Health Unit for their Olympic Winter Sport Day, which aims to get kids active.

Pascuzzo said Holy Cross is a healthy school; they promote nutrition and exercise with their students.

"With the rates of childhood obesity in Canada, we want to keep our kids active and expose them to a variety of different sports they may choose to participate in outside of school," she said.

With the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship in mind, Pascuzzo said they also used the event to raise cultural awareness.

Each child was placed on one of 22 teams, each representing a country participating in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games. As a group, they learned a bit about their corresponding country and created a flag and banner to carry into the opening ceremony in the school’s gymnasium.

"One of the most important things is that they understand different cultures, but I think also to build together a world of peace," Pascuzzo said. "We really strive to teach our children to support other countries. It’s important they come together as one."

And as each country entered the Holy Cross gymnasium, the excitement could be heard loud and clear.

"You can feel the energy in the air," said Pascuzzo. "It’s awesome."