More Than a Few Good Kids

Over the last month, students at Evans Elementary School strained to do more push ups, faster wind sprints, and longer standing long jumps than they had in September. After all, the Marines were coming . . . in helicopters . . . with certificates for those who participated in their Youth Physical Fitness Program.

About 20 active-duty and reserve Marines from Camp Pendleton arrived a little late for Friday’s ceremony, having been fogged in. They delivered certificates to 597 students who had completed the program, and let the children tour the Cobra and Huey helicopters.

“This is the fourth year we’ve had helicopters come. The [Marines] land on the playground and let the kids crawl all over them,” said Evans Principal Bonnie Strand. “They also sign autographs. They’re celebrities and good role models for the kids.”

The program encourages children to improve their own physical fitness throughout the year, and to live a drug-free life, its organizer said.

“The whole message of the program is to be smart, stay off drugs and keep your body and mind fit,” said Peggy Talsma, the first-grade teacher who teamed up with the Marine program.

She got the idea from her mom, Bryan Pendregast, a physical education teacher at a parochial school in Stanton, who had been participating in the program since 1988.

Every student receives a certificate of participation. “No one is left out. That’s what I liked about the program,” said Talsma. “It included everybody and excluded no one.”

“We do it here because it really enhances the physical fitness program.”

Students can continue to push themselves in the program and earn certificates through 12th grade.

It’s a day the Marines look forward to as well. Strand’s son Brandon, a Marine with a helicopter ground crew at Pendleton, came for the second year in a row.

“It was really a lot of fun. Bonnie got to tell stories about her son,” Talsma said. “All the kids were asking him questions. He was the star for the day.”

Chris Ceballos can be reached at (714) 966-7440