Students put heart into jump rope event

Rosie Moorehouse And Zara Kellett  TBW Newsgroup
SCHOOL GOAL: Penola Primary School students Rosie Moorehouse and Zara Kellett hope to reach a significant sum of money as they prepare for the Heart Foundation fundraiser.

Rosie Moorehouse And Zara Kellett TBW Newsgroup
SCHOOL GOAL: Penola Primary School students Rosie Moorehouse and Zara Kellett hope to reach a significant sum of money as they prepare for the Heart Foundation fundraiser.

PENOLA Primary School students will skip for a cause this Friday as they take on the Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser.

The Penola cohort will join more than 300,000 other students across Australia in this year’s program, which encourages children to have a positive attitude towards exercise while raising funds to fight heart disease.

Each year, Penola primary’s student representative council chooses a major fundraiser for the school to participate in, with members selecting heart disease for 2020.

According to the council, Jump Rope for Heart was chosen after students watched a skipping demonstration by Mil Lel Primary School last year.

The student group said the skipping-based fundraiser was an appropriate activity to undertake and adhered to social-distancing guidelines.

Student representative council president Rosie Moorehouse said anticipation was building for the upcoming ‘jump off’ and having fun with peers.

Ms Moorehouse said the entire student body looked forward to demonstrating new skipping skills as well as developing relationships between the older and younger children.

“We will have our jump off day which will just have classes skipping and having fun,” she said.

“We are excited to hold the event as it will be our first fundraiser as the new representative council.

“All of our others were cancelled so we are excited for this one.”

Established in 1983, Jump Rope for Heart is the Heart Foundation’s skipping and fundraising program run in schools across Australia.

Money raised helps the foundation fund research and support programs for people affected by heart disease.

Since 1959, the organisation has invested the equivalent of $557m towards the cause, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heart disease – which remains the single biggest killer of Australians.