Still Going the Extra Mile
for Children's Health Care

By Amy Crelly

Jason Harper, local dad and activist for children's health care, ran 100 miles last May to help the students at
Sacramento's Oak Ridge Elementary School. This month, students and volunteers celebrate yet another milestone.

Last May, as the students at Oak Ridge Elementary School began taking their California STAR exams, dad Jason Harper started on a 100-mile race to improve their health care. Harper called it The Extra Mile Run. The idea was simple: Cover the kids' health care needs (from treatment for toothaches to glasses for vision problems), and you'll improve their academic performance, thereby improving their lives. At the very least, Harper and his team of supporters, including parents, school staff, and community volunteers, hope to give these inner-city kids an equal start on the path to success.

The First Step
Harper began fundraising for the children at Oak Ridge back in 2005, when he and Rick Cole, "two 'non-runners'" at the time, as Harper describes them, decided to tackle the Big Sur International Marathon to help the kids of Oak Park. They collected pledges, completed the marathon, and saw the creation of Equal Start, a non-profit organization that has since "poured over $250,000 in support, supplies, and 2,500 hours of volunteer services into Oak Ridge Elementary School," according to Harper.

Still, problems persisted for the impoverished students at Oak Ridge, including stubbornly low scores on standardized tests like the STAR exams. Harper talked with Mr. Steve Lewis, Principal at Oak Ridge Elementary, about the problems the kids still faced. Harper recalls how quickly and clearly Principal Lewis responded, saying "lack of health care for his students was the single greatest hurdle..." Harper's new goal was to secure health coverage for the students. In addition to assisting families with coverage costs, the Extra Mile effort aimed to help families whose children already qualified for public assistance to navigate enrollment forms and procedures, so they could connect with the services available to them. The team also worked to establish a transportation system for getting kids to and from doctors' and dentists' appointments, no small part, as any busy working parent knows.

The Extra Mile
Although Harper finished the race short of his 24-hour goal, crossing the finish line just after the 30-hour mark, the event was, by all other measurements, a huge success. Harper says, "we raised funding, services, and gifts in kind that totaled around $85,000." In addition to raising support and bringing attention to California's vast number of uninsured children (about 26,000 in Sacramento County alone, according to CoverTheKids.com), the run succeeded in rallying efforts from the many students, parents and school staff who turned out to cheer Harper on and show their appreciation.

Making Strides
So far, over 80% of the school's students are enrolled with health care coverage, says Harper. "We have been told by many that one hundred percent enrollment is impossible, but," Harper says, "I have been told things are impossible before. It gives us a great goal." And every step toward that goal has been marked by meaningful success stories. Harper says, "we have taken children to the optometrist for the first time. Students have seen the dentist to address critical needs..."

The staff and students are doing their part too. The latest standardized test results show the kids achieved the highest measurement of Academic Performance Index Growth in the school's history. The school's overall proficiency measurement also made gains, from 19% in 2007 to 26% in 2008, with socio-economically disadvantaged students and English language learners all showing improvement.

Equal Start has also started an after-school running club that meets each Wednesday afternoon. Michelle Purcell, co-director of Equal Start, runs the group, along with six other local volunteers. Purcell says the Extra Mile Run helped get the kids' attention. "Alot of kids said, 'I want to run like Jason,'" she tells me. The group provides students with an outlet after school, but running is also something the volunteers in the program value highly themselves. "We've always run," says Purcell, of herself and the other mentors, some of whom are student athletes at CSU Sacramento. "It's something that we feel just makes us more effective and helps our self-esteem. If it's helping us, we want to do that for the kids as well."

Discovering their Personal Best
The latest roster for the Be Change Running Group lists 64 students, and the group continues to grow, not just in terms of the number of kids it is reaching, but also in terms of the different ways it aims to help them. "The more one-on-one time, the more impact we've seen," says Purcell. For this reason, volunteers now stay with the same small group of kids for a full semester, providing mentoring and encouragement that goes beyond the track. The volunteer coaches/mentors meet with parents on Monday mornings before school to discuss the kids' progress over coffee and pastries and to see the students at least once more during the week.

On Wednesdays, the kids meet after school from 2-4pm. "Recently, we started to time them and mark their hands with each lap they do.... That way they establish goals," says Purcell. Setting those goals, meeting them, and getting encouragement to move on to the next challenge, has made a big difference in terms of building the kids' self-esteem. She tells me of kids who proudly hold up their tally-marked hands, sharing how many laps they've completed that day, how many more that is compared to their last run, and announcing their goal for the next practice. The hope is that this kind of confidence will also support the kids in the classroom, at home and beyond.

Journaling has also helped the kids, so it has become part of the running group's routine as well. The kids' journals reveal that Be Change is not just about beating your best time. On a lighter note, one girl writes, "the best part about running club is that we play the hula hoop and cone games." Purcell says she can see some of the kids' images of themselves transforming in the pages of their journals, as they start to describe themselves as "healthy" and "strong." Purcell explains that the kids' journal entries have also given the adults in their lives yet another way to check in and make sure they're getting the care they need. One girl recently concluded an otherwise happy entry with this short remark: "My tooth is killing me today." Those six words, which might have gone unheard before, were enough to alert the team and get that child seen by a dentist. Chronic spelling mistakes and other indicators of academic struggles also show up in the pages of the kids' journals. Purcell says they're on the lookout to help kids solve problems like that too.

The Next Milestone
Harper notes that The Running Zone, a family-run business in Elk Grove, generously provided each child in the running group with a pair of Asics running shoes to get them started, and that Capital Christian Center continues to provide shirts and transportation for the project.

On Wednesday, February 4th, the kids of the Be Change Running Group will receive sixty pairs of new running shoes, thanks to another generous donation from The Running Zone, which has rallied support from customers and community members, including more fortunate elementary school kids, whose creative fundraising efforts have helped make it possible. The store now plans to launch a non-profit, called Running Free, to supply local kids in financial need with athletic shoes, so they can run or participate in sports.

Going the Distance
Over summer break, the kids will take a special field trip up to Oregon, where they'll tour Nike Headquarters (in Beaverton) and then tour the University of Oregon campus. "For most of the kids," notes Harper, "[this] will be the first time they have traveled beyond their neighborhood." It's all part of expanding the kids' horizons and giving them a sense of accomplishment for all their hard work. Students must complete study tables, have a clean disciplinary record and have completed a 5K run with their Be Change mentor in order to go on the field trip, making it, says Harper, "the reward to a great year of academic, classroom and running achievement."

Asked if he has plans to run another 100-mile race this year, Harper says the thought is actually "very attractive." But reaching that goal of achieving steady and sustained health care coverage for more local children is even more attractive, and to do that, he's come up with a brand-new goal. "I am seeking runners," Harper says, "who will train and complete the California International Marathon (CIM) in December, [each] on behalf of a child in Oak Park."

"Running for a cause is contagious," says Harper. "Imagine, four hundred people in the Greater Sacramento community running for four hundred children in the inner-city. The runner's efforts could provide for the child: a back pack, school supplies, nutritional enrichment, continued health care, school clothes and shoes." Harper's dream involves a clear vision of each marathoner seeing the face of the child he or she is helping as they cross the CIM finish line. It will certainly be an exciting moment for everyone involved, and part of a long and wonderful journey that I hope will never end.

To join the Be Change team or find out how to start a similar program at your own school, contact Michelle Purcell, co-director of Equal Start, at 916-856-5648 or mpurcell@ccconline.cc. You can also get involved by visiting the Extra Mile site: www.ExtraMileRun.com.