750 Miles

Did you know it is 750 miles between New Smyrna Beach and Olmstead, KY?  

Jeri Taylor is a Kindergarten Teacher in Olmstead, KY, she also lives part-time here in New Smyrna Beach. Jeri is trying to instill living a healthy lifestyle in her young students and that includes exercise. Her class decided to walk the miles from Olmstead, KY to New Smyrna Beach, FL during this school year.....they walked 15 minutes at a time and multiplied their distance by the number of walkers to get the total miles walked per day. On nice days they walked outside, they used Kid’s Walk Videos on not so nice days. They tracked all their progress on their class website so they could share all their progress with their parents. 

On Thursday, May 19^th they passed their 750 mile goal! The class actually walked 766 miles!!

They celebrated their tremendous accomplishment with a New Smyrna Beach – BEACH PARTY!

On Friday, May 20^th the beach celebration began in this kindergarten classroom in Kentucky!  The students came to class with flip flops, sunglasses, beach towels, and custom created shirts.  Their shirts( in the picture above) showed footprints going from Olmstead, Kentucky to New Smyrna Beach, Florida with the 750 miles distance on the front.   Jeri had the New Smyrna Beach live webcam projected on the board as the excited students arrived.  She also had a map of NSB on the wall and they watched videos from the Visitor’s Center website.  

The afternoon was the highpoint of their NSB beach celebration.  Some parents in the classroom set up beach games on the playground, including looking for sea shells that actually came from New Smyrna Beach.  The final part of the beach celebration day was made possible by the very generous contribution of the New Smyrna Beach Visitor’s Center (they are awesome).  The Visitor’s Center provided sand pails, shovels, Yo Yos, Frisbees, bookmarks, magnets, and maps for the children.   Each child went home with a backpack full of New Smyrna Beach souvenirs, shells, and huge smiles on their faces.   

What an awesome teacher Jeri Taylor is! How very fortunate are her students in Olmstead, KY to have such an innovative, creative teacher. How fortunate are we that we live in New Smyrna Beach and get to share this wonderful accomplishment with these terrific students!