Betcha $5...

I heard today that our country is in a national funk...bad news is getting us down.

Well I'm going to fix that.

Let me tell you about something that will make your day. Inspire you. Give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.

Over the winter TriROK was contacted by the Principal of Great Oak Elementary School in Danvers, MA. One of our Board members, Nicole Prince, has children there, and the Principal, Matt Fusco, is a triathlete himself. So is the PE Teacher at the school, Shawn Gilmartin. So they looked at our TriAlliances program, and gave us a call.

After meeting, we decided that Great Oak was an IDEAL place to pilot a free triathlon club for 4th and 5th graders. We expected 10 kids and ended up with over 20.

Each week the kids get together for three workouts: a bike or brick, a run, and a swim. We have an awesome network of coaches a volunteers who are overseeing those workouts, together with Coach Gilmartin. Nicole has coordinated getting sponsors, t-shirts, and training spaces for the club. Principal Fusco has supported our work every step of the way.

Some great sponsors have stepped to the plate, including Western Cycle and the Lyden Swim Center in Danvers . Then we asked for donations from the TriROK Facebook Fans, and they have started stepping up to help us get trisuits for the kids if possible.

NO ONE working on this project gets paid. Coach Gilmartin is doing this out of the goodness of his heart. All along the way, folks could have said no...I'm just too busy. Honestly? I almost said that!

But we didn't. And it's tremendous. The kids are great...lots of them are just learning to swim and others are really working hard to string together a few minutes of running. But every coach and volunteer who has worked with them has come away saying the same thing, "These kids are SO awesome. I'm so glad I get to work with them."

So thanks to the parents, who schlep kids to weekday workouts and the Lyden Center on Saturdays in the afternoon. Thanks to the staff at Great Oak who are volunteering their precious time and energy. Thanks to the coaches and volunteers who have come to meetings and staffed workouts. Thanks to our TriROK staff who keep their nose to the grindstone even when the work is thankless and seems neverending.

I can't wait to watch these kids race at the KidsROK Triathlon on July 16th. If YOU want to help, visit www.trirok.org and click on our donate button. I betcha five bucks you can make a difference...

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