Friday, May 8, 2009

The Double Dutch Bus stops at Manual Tech today

Posted by Nadia Pflaum on Fri, May 8, 2009 at 10:12 AM

click to enlarge DoubleDutchlogo.gif


You already know, Miss Mary Mack was a ho...


The 3rd Annual Double Dutch Competition is already underway at the Manual Career and Technical Center. Teams from metro public schools have been practicing their routines all year, thanks to a teensy bit of prodding by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which sponsors the program as a way of promoting exercise and battling childhood obesity.



My elementary school playground's blacktop was always sparkling with colorful beads. Girls wore them strung over the braids in their hair with a bit of aluminum foil crunched at the ends to keep them in, but playing hopscotch and double dutch shook them loose (to the agony of their mothers, no doubt). The rhymes we sung while twirling ropes made the teacher's aides blush.



But Felicia Safir says that girls here don't jump rope like that anymore. She's the Manager of School-Based Services for the Kansas City, Missouri School District, in charge of all of the district's school nurses. When she got involved with the state's double dutch competition, she realized that skipping rope is becoming a lost art.



"Some of these kids had never jumped even one rope before," she says, shaking her head. "We had to show 'em."

The competitors learned about healthy exercise by starting out the year with physicals that measured things like their Body Mass Index -- Safire says that some kids lost as many as 30 pounds through double dutch. 



Today's jump-off takes place in the gym just behind Manual Tech from 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Safire coordinated an opening ceremony to rival the Olympics, with  performances by the Blenheim Drill Team and the drum line from Lincoln College Preparatory Academy. Winners will receive an invitation to compete in a state-wide competition in Jefferson City.

Awards will be handed out in a medal ceremony this afternoon. The competition is open to the public, so get down there if you don't know about Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, all dressed in black, black, black. (This is the cleanest version I've ever seen!)

Comments (1)

Showing 1-1 of 1

Add a comment

Is there a handicap for the white girls?

On a side note, The 3rd Annual Johnson County Bake-Off will take place at the Overland Park Convention Center this weekend. White girls between the ages of six and twelve have been preparing for the competion since the completion of last year's Bake-Off.

Contestants will prepare tea and crumpits for egotistical, self-indulgent, Johnson County soccer moms behind on their mortgage. Products not consumed by starving mothers will be donated to the 3rd Annual Double Dutch Competion taking place on the shitty side of town.

For more information please contact Debbie Dukes- wife of David Dukes @ www.affirmativeaction.com

report   
Posted by CarlSimmonRussell on May 8, 2009 at 10:52 AM
Subscribe to this thread:
Showing 1-1 of 1

Add a comment

Latest in Plog

Author Archives

Most Popular Stories

Slideshows

All contents ©2012 Kansas City Pitch LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this service may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Kansas City Pitch LLC,
except that an individual may download and/or forward articles via email to a reasonable number of recipients for personal, non-commercial purposes.
Website powered by Foundation