Elementary Students Join Others Across Globe on Exercise Day

Gabbing and giggling, more than 200 Middletown students in kindergarten through grade five were freed from the classroom's confines for 20 minutes Wednesday to take a mile-long walk around the neighborhood.

With skies overcase and the air cool, the children filed out the signature red front door of the 1920 school, joining Macdonough Elementary teachers, staff and parents as part of Project All Children Exercise Simultaneously, a program of the Youth Fitness Coalition created by physical education teacher Len Saunders in 1989.

ACES takes place on the first Wednesday in May as part of National Physical Fitness and Sports Month along with National Physical Education Week.

Each classroom staggered its departure time and followed either the one-mile or one-and-a-quarter-mile long North End trail as part of the city's Middletown in Motion project maintained by the Department of Public Health. There is also a downtown loop, a map of which can be downloaded here.

The students moved briskly along for the most part, a few stopping to pick a dandelion puff ball, count the rings on a tree stump or laugh and point out to friends the occasional dog dropping — surely attesting to their teacher's patience.

Back at the cafeteria afterward, Principal Jon Romeo said students enjoyed a light snack together before heading back to class certainly refreshed.

Let Patch save you time. Get great local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone every day with our free newsletter. Simple, fast sign-up here.

Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.