THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506070216
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Nicholas Peters and the other 688 students at Brookwood Elementary School had a field day last week - and a career day, too.
The field day, featuring 20 athletic events and contests, has been an annual occurrence for several years. The pupils enjoy what amounts to an all-day recess, with food, fun, prizes.
This year a couple of Brookwood staff members decided to add some meat and potatoes to the dessert.
``Normally, we take each class out for two hours,'' said Kenny Smith, program coordinator. ``They play and have a good time and that's good, but we thought they might benefit from having some people from the community come out and speak to them about careers.''
Carolyn Joyner, physical education instructor, helped Smith organize the inaugural event. She said it was really Smith's ``brainstorm and hard work'' that brought the day to fruition.
``Kenny asked me what we planned to do and told me his idea about adding the career day to our field day activities. He really sold everyone on the idea and then worked hard to make it possible,'' said Joyner. ``So we made it an all-day event.''
So, while the youngsters ran, jumped and romped, they also listened to some practical advice.
Among the speakers was Ed Stamer, district manager for Blockbusters Video, Brookwood's Adopt-A-School partner.
The speakers talked about their occupations: Carrie Brown, an emergency room nurse; Karla Bush, a cosmetologist; Duane Pierce, a city firefighter. The children watched and listened as city police arrived on horseback, in a patrol car and with a K-9 unit.
Some occupations grabbed their attention more than others. This was true of David Rogers, who talked about car stereo installation. Navy Seals attracted hushed awe from most of the students, particularly some of the boys.
Nicholas Peters, a second-grader in Judith Littlejohn's class, climbed the ladder to a helicopter brought by the HC-2 squadron from the amphibious command ship Mount Whitney. The 8-year-old's eyes widened as he looked at the cockpit and listened to the crew talk about their missions.
A city police helicopter escorted the helicopter onto the field behind the school.
``It's really cool,'' Nicholas said, staring at the aircraft. ``I would like to fly it.''
Nicholas and his classmates then went with Littlejohn to watch a demonstration of a robot used by the city fire department in emergencies.
Out on the basketball court, first-grader Anna Lewis, 7, tried her luck at tossing Hula-Hoops over orange-traffic cones from 10 feet away. Teri Richardson, a freshman at Green Run High School and volunteer, supervised the activity.
A step-dance team from Ocean Lakes High School brought rousing cheers for their rhythmic act in the auditorium near day's end.
``We distributed over $3,000 to the kids through our raffle sales,'' said Smith of the successful event. ``Various local businesses donated items, such as movie tickets, for example. Kids won these tickets and other prizes, and we also raffled off cruises on the Discovery for our volunteers.
``The students had fun and they learned about jobs,'' said Smith. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY EDWARDS
Brookwood Elementary School students wait to inspect a Navy
helicopter from the amphibious command ship Mount Whitney.
PTA volunteer Charlene Lewis leads students in the ``cakewalk''
exercise.
by CNB