Jill B. Allen ’13 needed physical education equipment and resources for her Movement Studio classroom at the Butler Lab School and, thanks to the participants in the NFL PLAY 60 DonorsChoose.org Showdown, she’s getting it.

Allen’s class will receive an array of volleyballs, basketballs, soccer balls and other gear after her project, called “Help Us Get Moving in Class and at Recess!,” was featured in the NFL/DonorsChoose competition. The NFL Play 60 Rush initiative is a weekly contest that pits two deserving youth health and fitness projects from the corresponding cities who play on Monday Night Football against each other each week. Fans vote for the winner.

“My students are diverse and love being able to explore in multiple ways,” Allen wrote on the NFLRush website. “That is why I am requesting movement manipulatives, balls, and other PE equipment so my students can learn the importance of physical activity, living a healthy life, and what it means to be skillful.”

Allen’s project won against a school from Queens, New York, which will receive 50 percent of the money it requested.

“This is a new program and I’m starting from scratch,” Allen said. “The kids only have about six items to play with at recess and some of the equipment is too young for them. This will really build our physical education and recess equipment base.”

Mindy Welch, Coordinator of the College of Education’s Human Movement and Health Science Education (HMHSE) program, said Allen has established “a remarkable impact” at the Lab School.

“Securing the funding for this DonorsChoose project is simply one fine example,” Welch said. “Through Jill’s leadership, initiative, and innovations, she is really helping to build community in new ways through the Movement Studio curriculum.”

Allen was one of six Butler juniors who were in an inaugural physical education practicum at the Lab School in the spring 2012. HMHSE students and faculty have provided the school’s only movement education since then, until Allen was hired this fall.

Welch, who is on sabbatical this fall, is working with Allen to develop the Movement Studio curriculum.

 

Media contact:
Marc Allan
mallan@butler.edu
317-940-9822