We don’t want to give the people on Raft River Elementary School’s parents advisory committee swollen heads but we have to praise them again.
About a month ago we praised the PAC for its success in winning $120,000 from the Aviva community fund for an intermediate-age playground at the school.
This time the praise is for providing cross-country skis and other equipment so every child in the school can learn to ski.
Wells Gray Outdoor Club has been track-setting routes on a field provided by a neighbour.
As a result, the students include cross-country skiing as part of their regular physical education curriculum.
And it’s paying off. During the annual cross-country ski races held last Thursday in Blue River, many of the students displayed good technique as they went around the course.
They had a good idea about what they were supposed to be doing and they were having fun doing it.
Cross-country skiing is a lifetime sport. You can do it when you are 90 years old … and if you keep doing it, there is a good chance you will make it to 90, and be fit enough to enjoy doing it at that age.
It is a sport for everyone. It doesn’t take a lot of money to participate (as the PAC has demonstrated) and you can work at it as hard or as gently as you like.
Cross-country skiing gets a person out in the fresh air and sunshine during winter – a time when, otherwise, one tends to spend too much time indoors.
It relieves stress, strengthens the heart, reduces blood pressure, and gives a person a more cheery disposition.
If it were a pill, cross-country skiing would probably require a prescription – or be illegal.
Congratulations once again to the Raft River PAC (and the other PACs in the Valley) for bringing the sport to our young people.
