WC_051718

16 | May 17, 2018 | The winnetka Current school
winnetkacurrent.com
Northfield students create community challenge fundraiser
Jacqueline Glosniak, Editor
In the morning hours
before school starts, most
kids are either rushing
through their preparation
routines, eating cereal and
watching TV, or repeatedly
hitting the snooze button.
But thanks to one teacher’s
inspirational message,
for one group of students
from Sunset Ridge School,
early mornings this past
school year have meant
meeting on campus before
the first bell rang to develop
a community wellness
and charity program.
It all started when
fourth-grade teacher Robin
Zogby was introduced to a
program called The Paradigm
Challenge by Sheri
Styczen, the District’s director
of innovation and
technology. Styczen, who
learned of the program
while on a conference in
Austin, Texas, proposed
the concept as a possible
alternative program to the
tech club that Zobgy led
for students.
The Paradigm Challenge,
which is an initiative
founded by private foundation
Project Paradigm, is
a global youth movement
founded for children to become
involved with bringing
new ideas to the table
for making a difference
in the world through projects,
mainly focused on
home fires, waste reduction,
personal health and
food security. Through the
guidance of teachers, children
create a team, study
challenge projects, draft
ideas and submit their entries,
where public voters
vote on the projects. From
there, finalists are categorized
into age divisions,
where the top students in
each division attend a ceremony
in Los Angeles and
compete for the grand Paradigm
Challenge Prize of
$100,000 shared between
teammates. Cash prizes
are also awarded for first-,
second- and third-place
winners as well as teachers.
Zogby liked the idea so
much that she created a
Paradigm Challenge group
for students in grades 4-8,
where students learned
about the organization,
created teams and submitted
entries for this year’s
challenge prompt of coming
up with a new way to
promote health and wellness
with kids and adults.
One of the teams, which
consisted of fifth-graders
Nolan Darnieder, Aidan
Andrew, Ben Keefer, Max
Kramer and Ben Ziezula,
created a program called
Marathon Mile, which was
a community challenge for
kids and adults to log a total
of either 12 or 25 miles
on their own time during a
two-month period and then
come together on April 28
at the Northfield Park District
to run the final mile
(either completing a half
marathon or a full marathon)
together as a community.
In order to run the race,
those who signed up had
to bring a gently-used pair
of shoes to donate to Soles4Souls,
an organization
that donates shoes to people
in poor communities.
Darnieder, who spearheaded
the idea for the
project, was inspired for
the concept after his aunt,
who directed a fun run for
his cousin who had died.
“Mrs. Zogby came into
class one day and said
there would be time to
work on The Paradigm
Project, and I knew this is
what I wanted to do after
the first meeting,” he said.
“[With Marathon Mile],
Sunset Ridge students and creators of the Marathon Mile charity project (left to right)
Max Kramer, Ben Ziezula, Ben Keefer, Aidan Andrew and Nolan Darnieder stand with
their teacher, Robin Zogby, April 28 at the Northfield Park District for the final mile
race of their project in conjunction with The Paradigm Challenge. PHOTOS SUBMITTED
Runners gather at the start line on race day.
the goal was to improve
personal wellness and
health in kids. I think we
did a good job on it.”
To encourage people
to participate, Darnieder
said they had a booth at
the school’s service night
and recruited help through
Sunset Ridge’s student
council, which is where
fourth-grader and student
council member Ali Gregorio
introduced the charity
Soles4Souls.
“A lot of classmates
were very interested in it,”
Darnieder said. “I got a lot
of them volunteering.”
Soon after, Darnieder
and his teammates built
a website using Weebly,
where they created a mile
log for participants, included
a map of the final
mile route and included
links to learn about Souls-
4Soles.
Along with Zogby helping
send district-wide
publicity emails about the
project, Darnieder said the
team was able to secure
publicity and sponsorship
through Starbucks and the
Children’s Gift Shop.
On April 28, the boys
collected more than 300
pairs of shoes and raised
$150 for Soles4Souls.
Zogby said she was
delighted to see how the
group of students created
a new Northfield idea from
scratch and ran away with
it.
“I just think in school
now, it’s so structured
and rigorous and there’s
so many things the kids
have to do,” she said, “and
for them to do something
they were really passionate
about and just wanted
to do, was really special
because you could tell
through their passion how
much they wanted to do
and how much they wanted
to succeed. When they
did succeed, there’s no
words to really describe
what it looks like.”
Because of the success
of the project, Darnieder
said he’s hoping to make
Marathon Mile an annual
project.
“It made me feel very
good that I was doing
something for these people
who might not have the
money to buy the shoes,”
he said.
Zogby said that even
for the first year in planning
an event of Marathon
Mile’s scale, the students
“completely exceeded”
her expectations for The
Paradigm Challenge.
“They not only designed
the run, but they came up
with T-shirts, they went to
vendors in the community
and asked for donations
and this tiny little seed of
a project turned into something
huge,” Zogby said.
“To see their faces at the
end, they were so proud of
the work that they did.”