Dana-Farber Middle School Challenge

I’ve been working part-time at the Medfield Middle School library for the past year. It was somewhat difficult to walk away from my other part-time job as a children’s bookseller at the fabulous independent bookstore, Wellesley Booksmith, located at mile 13 on the marathon course. (It’s great to have a personal cheering section on race day as well as a rest stop on training runs!) I adored my customers (mostly parents) and the staff at the Booksmith, and my work day was filled with lively dialogue and conversation about the latest and greatest books.

Don’t get me wrong - the staff and faculty at the Middle School are wonderful, and the kids are great too. Plus, the commute is only a 100 yard walk across the street. However, for every one student who is excited about a new title we recently purchased, there are about 50 who could care less. While my children aren't exactly bookworms, they do read, and I don’t ever remember my two older children bringing home a book from the school library. I’m guessing that also may be due to the fact that their mother has a personal and extensive home collection of literature ranging from picture books to young adult novels. They are robbed of an excuse NOT to have a book to read every night. Most of the students (including my children) enjoy reading, it’s just that they are very busy with all their classes, their friends and after-school activities to spend much time chatting about literature with the woman behind the desk at their school library.

So to add a little zip into my job at the library, I’ve coordinated the Dana-Farber Middle School Challenge. I’ve "challenged" students (and faculty) to run 26 miles over a period of 4 weeks. This works out to be an average of 6 – 7 miles per week. Run, walk, skip, dance jump…it doesn’t matter. Just keep moving and log the miles! DFMC runner and graphic designer, Jenny Ross, designed this AWESOME logo that will be screened on bright blue t-shirts:




Group runs (a safe 2 mile loop) will be on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and perhaps there will be some sort of final celebration at our last workout (5 days before the Boston Marathon). The kids wil also have the opportunity to help me fundraise for cancer research by making donations to DFMC. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that DFMC coaching guru and Boston Marathon winner, Jack Fultz, will join us at one of our workouts…but Jack, let’s pass on the skirt for this workout! (see Men in Skirts Post)