track and field Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Athletes for Hope

Heptathalete, Makeba Alcide, Meets with Crockett Elementary

Heptathalete, Makeba Alcide, Meets with Crockett Elementary

Heptathalete and Olympic hopeful, Makeba Alcide, met with the kids from Crockett Elementary recently. We are so glad to continue Let’s Move visits with these kids. Below, Makeba shared her thoughts about the visit and why she decided to give back to others.

Why do you volunteer?
I volunteered because I love working with children, and I wanted to reach out and be able to get them more involved in physical activity at a young age because this is when I got involved in athletics by someone reaching out to me and it changed my life.

Why Let’s Move Active Schools?
I love this cause because it is a platform that is much needed all over the world, that is a simple yet effective way to get children excited about being physically active. In this day and age where we have a high population of unhealthy children it is integral that we do our part to ensure that kids become more active again.

What was your favorite part about today?
My favorite part was the question and answer portion where the kids prepared questions to ask me. It wasn’t scripted so I think I gave very honest open answers which helped me think a little about myself and how impactful my story can be.

Makeba Alcide
Heptathlete- St. Lucia

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Natasha Hastings and the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders

Olympic hopeful, Natasha Hastings, met with 45 young girls, grades 6-12 at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders this week. This public school is named after former Texas Governor Ann Richards – a strong example of female leadership – and is the first and only public all girl’s school in Austin, Texas.

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Natasha spoke with the girls about training, physical fitness, nutrition, stress reduction and what it’s like to start out wanting to be an Olympian and then achieving those dreams. The girls had a lot of great questions about overcoming obstacles, gender equality in sports, eating healthy, training and what were her plans for the upcoming Olympic trials. She spoke at length about overcoming obstacles, training after loss and how hard it was some days to work through pain. She discussed how she trains, what she eats and why it’s so important to always look your best (“Dress for the part”). She took almost 45 minutes to answer EVERY question that came her way and was kind, gracious and funny!

After their chat, she lead the group in some exercises to get warmed up, and then had them do a #5forPE challenge and challenged them all to do 5 burpees. She had an engaged, active group of young women leaders who were all smiles as we took a few group photos!

Chad Stoermer Motivates Kids at Baslz Elementary

Chad Stoermer, championship pole-vaulter, visited the kids at Baslz Elementary in Phoenix last week where he discussed the importance of proper nutrition, exercise, and the importance of developing reading skills during his recent visit.

Why do you volunteer?

In the movie Spider-Man, Uncle Ben’s advice to Spider-Man, “With great power comes great responsibility.” I believe the purpose of obtaining knowledge is to share it.

chad stoermer

What was your favorite part of the day?

My favorite part of the day was the final race – me vs the motivated girls in the group. The intensity in the air was thick. There were 3 false starts. I had a nice easy push out the back of my race and was certain I was the first to reach the half way point until miraculously I had 4 competitors chipping away 3 lengths ahead of me. I’ve never seen such tiny limbs move so fast. The race was nearly over so I did what any champion would do – I dove across the finish line. I won the race by popular vote because I was the crowd favorite, but I’m still not convinced who took the race.

The experience was incredible! It was quite a treat for me to share my knowledge with the kids at Baslz Elementary.