Team Forest at Kitchen 5K

The Student Council elections came up roses for me and I along with an awesome team of officers were elected to take the reigns for the coming year. Our first major event was raising money and participating in an annual 5k run that benefits the local homeless shelter. We raised funds for 10 members of the Forest Institute community to participate in the run, I was lucky (or maybe unlucky depending on how you look at it) enough to be one of those participants. The following is the original email we sent out to the school after the event. By the way my time wasn't the best ever but not bad for it being the first time I ran all year- 31:30)

Team Forest arrived bright and early Saturday morning outside the City Utilities Building just adjacent to the starting line of the 16th Annual Kitchen 5K Fun Run. Uniformly clothed in our new Team Forest tee-shirts we were ready for a nice jog through the heart of downtown Springfield.

With the side-line support our trusty Student Council Secretary, Amy Duncan, we were certainly in a perfect position to do our best in this race that included over 600 other participants.

Our 10 person sponsored team included Brent Anderson, Emily Abel, John Weems, Kiri Tesnar, Polly Vandenburg and her Fiancé Bob, Renae Courtney, as well as Student Council 3rd Year Representative Andy Huls, Student Council Vice-President Dana Sweatt and Student Council President Adam Batchelder. With our sun glasses or iPods in place we were ready for the 5K ahead.

We each found our desired pace and then put our treads to the road in an effort to support this most noble cause.

At the completion of the race we each felt much better, better for helping the cause, better for our fitness, or simply better because we could finally rest, regardless of the reason we felt better.

We know that each of us gave our very best but one amongst us was recognized for their most impressive diligent efforts.

We are most pleased to announce Polly Vandenburg's 3rd place victory for her age category!
A BIG CONGRATS out to you POLLY of Team Forest!
We wish to thank all those who made this Student Council sponsored event a reality, the FIPP Administration, those who donated or purchased items at the bake sale, and especially those who got involved and participated in the event. Thank You!

Great Work Team Forest!!!

Sincerely;
Student Council