Haley Kroeplin

Clinical Practicum III

October 25, 2020

Community Service Learning Journal

This year the City of Rochester, Minnesota announced that Mayor Kim Norton will be
participating in the “Move with the Mayor” initiative. This event was developed by the National
Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention to empower community members to maintain an
active and healthy lifestyle. Throughout the year, Mayor Norton sponsored many activities
throughout the community and regularly posted videos of herself staying active and encouraging
others to do the same. The most recent activity and the one that I volunteered at occurred this
past Saturday and involved getting Rochester’s youth moving.

I arrived at Soldier’s Field Memorial Park Saturday morning, ready to volunteer. The day
began with meeting the event coordinators and going over the day’s agenda. Afterwards, the
volunteers were encouraged to become familiarized with their activity station. During this time,
myself and another volunteer were directed to the “Run like the Wind” station. This station
involved Rochester youth sprinting 100 meters, in hopes of beating Mayor Kim Norton’s record
of 23 seconds. The two of us decided that I would give directions and encouragement to the kids
at the start line, while my partner would stand at the finish line to time them.
The event began at 11am with a welcoming message from Mayor Norton and then the
event coordinators explained the event rules and reminded everyone about following the COVID
requirements of maintaining a social distance of 6 feet from one another, wearing masks and
using hand sanitizer throughout the event. Next, the 25 registered kids were directed to cones,
distantly spaced to begin a warm-up led by the event coordinators. Once all the kids were
warmed up, they were dismissed to each of the 12 activity stations with a fun game of Simon
Haley Kroeplin
Clinical Practicum III
October 25, 2020

Says. The activity stations lasted for 40 minutes, before a final game of tag with pool noodles
was played.
Throughout this event, it was so enjoyable seeing how excited each child was when
coming to my station in hopes that they would ‘beat the mayor.’ Even the few kids who doubted
that they could run that fast, seemed to gain a little bit more confidence after I gave them some
positive encouragement and cheered them on. Overall, this event was a fantastic opportunity to
volunteer within my community while promoting a healthy lifestyle for kids. I have been in
contact with the event coordinator over the weekend and she is already planning a similar event
in the spring that will include fun sporting activities that the Rochester youth can participate in.
When all the details are finalized, I plan on volunteering for this event to once again give back to
my community and inspire kids to stay active!