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Courtesy Photo 
Bethany Burkhart, Whitnee Raines, Lauren O’Sullivan, Taylor Spencer, Kelsi Cotter, Kara Falls, Cydney Fogle, Destinee Belden, Rebekah Fogle, Morgan Garcia, Taylor Landes, Selene Belden, Jaclyn Moncada, Axel Anchondo, Valerie Chain. Not pictured: Kim Falls and Jackson Anderson. The following is a blog written by Guymon Central Junior High yearbook sponsor Rebekah Fogle after she took her students to Oklahoma City for the American Heart Association Heart Walk last weekend. The students are still accepting donations via the www.guymontigers.com Website. —Shawn Yorks
WOW! What a couple of days! I had the privilege of taking my yearbook class to OKC to participate in the American Heart Association's Heart Walk, and it was an awesome experience!
We left on Friday morning, (no comment on the time, because it was almost an hour after we were supposed to leave.) Our first stop was Penn Square Mall and with a group consisting of 98% girls you can bet we were on a mission to shop!
After hours of shopping hunger was beginning to set in so we made our way to Incredible Pizza! What a BLAST! With race cars, movies, video games, bowling, and a buffet that seemed like it was a mile long, we never ran out of things to do! My personal favorite was the roller coaster game; you sat in it like a real roller coaster, and the seat moved along with a big screen in front of you! It was so much fun! Next stop, the hotel, YEAH! BUT wait how to get there? It was really easy, but you couldn’t see it from the road so after a few u-turns, we finally arrived. Oh sweet REST finally, OK not really remember I was with 14 teenagers! About midnight we finally turned off the TV and went to bed.
Saturday was the BIG day! The Heart Walk was finally upon us! We all met down in the breakfast area to enjoy waffles and omelets. Not bad for a free hotel breakfast! AND I was so proud many of my students cooked their own waffles! I nuked my breakfast.. so I wouldn’t call it cooking! J
I promise I knew the way to Bricktown!! I really, really did! BUT the road was blocked off for construction, so we took the scenic route! Through neighborhoods, over the rail road tracks, and then back again! Finally, familiar sites, we made it to Bricktown! The walk started in the Ball Park and led us around downtown OKC! It was 3.5 miles. There were thousands of people walking. When we got close to the end, there was a band playing and cheerleaders from various area schools cheering us on! It was really cool!
My students noticed that people had pictures on the backs of their shirts. This one group in particular had a picture of a beautiful little girl and underneath the picture it said walking in memory of … It did make us sad, but when we looked around there were at least 50 people with those lime green shirts on! That little girl’s life impacted so many people! Now each of those people had chosen to help others. Talk about paying it forward! AND what an impact it had on us!
After we finished the walk, we were treated to free massages! That was nice. The rest of the group went to Toby Keith’s to eat while I went across town to take my PE teaching test! (Ask me about the bird flying around the classroom when you get the chance.)
Next mission, get home! Sounds easy right… well, we made it to the Cherokee Trading Post, and yep you guessed, I got a flat tire! We found a tire guy, but we had to sit outside waiting for 45 minutes for him to get to his shop. Once he got there, he fixed me right up and we were back on the road! Finally, at around 10PM we made it home~ (Hey it was only 3 hours later than our original plan!)
We all made it home safely, and we all had a great time! Thanks to God for that! I couldn’t have done this without my amazing friend Kim with me all the way, and Selene thanks so much for being right there with a big encouraging smile!
I can’t wait until next year!
Oh yeah, how could I forget we have made almost $400 for the American Heart Association, and we are still working at it! |
