In 10 days, Darlene Fedyna of Gymtastics Gym Club (Calgary, Alberta) gained nearly 150 new nieces and nephews.
Earlier this month, Darlene Fedyna returned from working at Sikelela school near Dundee, South Africa. There, she taught 147 students in Kindergarten through Grade 7 who named her “Auntie Darlene” about movement, teamwork, and how to play sports.
The initiative, called Play-it-Forward, was possible through fundraising efforts at her gym in Calgary that raised about $6,500 — enough to buy basic sports equipment and T-shirts for the kids at the school. “We really believe kids should be allowed to play; sport and body language is a way of life,” said Fedyna, adding half the children in the school are orphans and the other half are from low income families.
Fedyna said physical education has been phased out of South African schools, but with the World Cup spotlight, it’s recently become a requirement that teachers include some sort of physical activity for kids; the only problem is, they have no resources. “None of the teachers know what to do for a Phys. Ed. program,” she said. But sports such as volleyball, netball, and soccer as well as activities like tug of war, skipping rope and hula hooping caught on quick, despite the language barrier, as the kids only spoke Zulu and so local teachers had to act as Fedyna’s translators.
“What I do with five-year-olds here, I could do with 13-year-olds there,” she said, adding even the older kids were mesmerized by ribbons and bubbles. “These kids had ear-to-ear smiles, you couldn’t wipe them off.” Fedyna said the program will continue at the school and she hopes its name proves true — that more vulnerable or suffered children will learn what it means to play.
 

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