School receives new PE equipment

Sisters physical education teacher Kathy Kemper-Green is beaming.

She recently received substantial donations to expand the equipment available for Physical Education classes and recesses at Sisters Elementary School.

Charged with evaluating and upgrading the PE equipment, Kemper-Green reviewed the PE departments in the Bend schools.

She said, "We were way behind the ball in both equipment and programs."

She said a grant to the Bend schools had recently enhanced their PE offerings. Her annual budget of $200 just wasn't going to cut it -- not to cover 450 students.

So she went looking for more money. On the way she found the Sisters School Foundation and the Rotary Club of Sisters. Immediately her budget jumped more than ten-fold.

She said, "First we gutted the storage room. Then, with the help of volunteers, we repainted and added new shelving."

She gave credit to David Banks as a "huge player." He was able to help buy equipment from Champion Sports, Inc. at substantial discounts. Kemper-Green has added at least 100 items to the equipment stores: "kid-friendly" tennis rackets and balls, badminton setups including nets and rackets for third through fifth graders, replacements for 30 "bent and twisted" hula hoops, paddle balls, jump ropes, and various sizes and shapes of balls.

She added cones for obstacle courses and miscellaneous items to crawl through, over and under. She now has Hippity Hop balls for special needs students.

The school had three music CD's that, according to Kemper-Green, "were probably 10 years old."

She said they all knew the music by heart and were really tired of it.

Now they have a much larger selection.

When the 20 boxes of equipment arrived, Kemper-Green enlisted the students to help unpack and label it.

She wants "enough equipment for everyone to have fun at recess," she said.

With the new purchase, fun seems to be in the offing.