Health & Wellness Updates
 

Explorers are off and running….  Literally running!!  With the holiday season came several area 5K races.  To countless, Thanksgiving means family,  food and football!  To many of our MacFarlane Families though, it also means participating in the St Petersburg Times Turkey Trot race.  On December 3rd, several MacFarlane Park students broke out their most festive wear and participated in the  2011 Jingle Bell run, helping to raise money for the National Arthritis Foundation.  One of our MacFarlane Park 4th graders ran in the M.A.D.D race to support awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving.  This same student participated in Miles for Hope, whose mission is to raise awareness and funding of cutting edge brain tumor research.

Congratulations to our students for participating in these challenging races and contributing to these worthy causes!
 

Upcoming Events & Activities Include:

· Saturday Feb. 25th -  Fifth Third Bank is sponsoring the  "Too Good For Drugs" Jr. Gasparilla Distance Classic. This is a free day for the kids at Pepin Stadium at the University of Tampa.   This Distance Classic is full of fun activities for the family, and of course a race. Join other MacFarlane families and enjoy face painting, balloons, FC Tampa Bay and much more.

To register log on to Tampabayrun.com, go to Race Info and scroll down.

The race times are determined by your child’s age. All entry fees are free until Feb. 22nd, after that registration is $5.00

· Saturday May 12th -  Our MacFarlane Park First Graders are sponsoring their service project – “EXPLORERS FOR A CURE”.   Please register at milesformoffit.com, select Team Member and then choose “EXPLORERS FOR A CURE”.   Miles for Moffitt is a 5K race, to raise funds for cancer research at Mofitt Cancer Center.  Last year , over 6,000 people participated and raised over $800,000 for research.  If you can't make the race you can still log on and donate.

· Sun Shade Structure Contest – MacFarlane Park is participating in an Essay Contest sponsored by the National Skin Education Foundation (NSEF).  With the hopes of winning  a new shade structure for our playground, students were asked to submit essays about the reasons that people should protect themselves from the sun and why MacFarlane Park is deserving of this grant.  Selections are underway and a final essay will be chosen for our school.  We are hopeful that our Sun shade essay effort will result in a win for our EXPLORERS!