TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - Lawndale Elementary School physical education teacher Bo Boatner sounded the horn Thursday morning and his students were off and running.
The yearly Turkey Trot is a lot of fun for the young people.
At the same time, they found out quickly what a challenge thirty minutes of continuous running can be.
One student said, "It gives you more energy. You can do more exercises."
Another student told us, "We ran and jogged. It was good exercise."
The students compete for awards and prizes.
Parents and friends come by the school to cheer on the young people, who ask adults to pledge money for each lap they complete.
There were volunteers from the high school, some of whom are runners themselves.
Senior Ashton Huey said, "They wanted runners to pace the kids and give them encouragement. Hopefully they will join the cross country team."
Senior Clayton Jarvis said, "A lot of the younger guys do look up to me and the other seniors. It's easy for me to help the kids out and encourage them. It meant a lot to me when I was younger."
For physical education teacher Bo Boatner, this day is a bit of a personal mission to get more children interested in running.
Boatner said, "My uncle is the one who got me started. It was just my niche. Running is so good for so many different kinds of people. It's for athletes who are competitive. It's for people who just want to exercise. It's for slow people. It's for fast people."
Boatner says the message to the young people is to set their own pace and goals.
He tells them to just find a way to get and stay active for a lifetime.
