North Marion Temporarily Turns Into Fun Center

With a bouncy house, water slide, crafts, volleyball, face-painting, obstacle course, and more, North Marion’s Intermediate and Primary playgrounds were transformed into a kid’s paradise for Field Day on Monday.

Fifth-grader James Rodriguez Salazar explained that he felt like he was at a water park. However, the cool spring weather gave him a few goose bumps too.

“I’m going to have six hot chocolates,” James announced.

Fellow fifth-grader Marcus Alaniz had to agree that the day was pretty spectacular.

“It’s fun,” Marcus said, adding, “You don’t have to do work!”

Why all the fun? And who made it happen? After raising the funds for the event through the Fun Run this past winter, Intermediate School PE Teacher Matt Prom collaborated on the effort with new Primary School PE Teacher Chris Evans, brainstorming ideas and fashioning a plan. Then, parent volunteers, staff, and administrators put that plan into action, with support from the Hubbard Police Department, who handed out stickers and ran races with the kids.

“We couldn’t do it without the volunteers,” Prom said.

While it may seem strange that everyone encouraged the students to simply play for two hours of their school day, Prom explained that free play benefits children physically and mentally, with new experiences to activate the brain. Evans agreed that free play has many benefits.

“Being able to play with all of the other students is social emotional learning,” Evans noted. “Being able to be a good sport, being able to cooperate, following the rules of the games.”

Evans also said the kids deserved some joy after a long year. That’s a sentiment many people shared.

“We are celebrating Field Day 2022,” Intermediate School Principal Cory Gaub said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Second-grader Natalie Sanchez, who was soaked from the water slide, would agree with that.

“We get to get wet, and we get to have fun,” Natalie said