Fifth-graders Sara Watson, from left, Taylor Allsup and Kaylen Duncan keep pace as they jog laps around Hockinson Heights Elementary School's new track last week. Donations from community members and from Karvonen Sand and Gravel made the newly remodeled track possible. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
Hockinson Heights Elementary School students are back on track after a local gravel company and community members donated time and money to build a gravel jogging path in the school’s playground.
On a recent sunny spring day, gym teacher Manny Melo’s fifth-graders sprinted, jogged or walked around the gravel track winding around the school’s playfield. Some focused on striding quickly around the path, which is about a fifth of a mile long, while others took it more slowly, chatting with their friends as they walked.
The path has been a longtime feature of this elementary school’s gym classes and recess time, but it was a winding road to bring the track to its current condition. Several months ago, construction of a security fence between the playground and the parking lot cut off a 55-yard-long stretch of the track. Where students once ran in the parking lot, they now ran in the grass — replacing a safety issue with a mud issue.
“At that point, we realized we lost part of this path,” Principal Lisa Swindell said. “Kids use it every single day.”
The school went out for bid to place gravel around the perimeter of the track, but were told by one company that it would cost about $8,600, well outside the school’s budget. That’s when Jack Sarkinen, who works at Battle Ground-company Karvonen Sand and Gravel, got involved.
Sarkinen attended the elementary school. His daughter, Rebecca, is a fourth grader there, and his son, Jared, is entering kindergarten in the fall. When he heard about the poor condition of the track from his daughter, he decided to help, offering the school a steep discount — nearly half off the original price.
“It was just a soupy mess,” Sarkinen said. “The whole area was getting beat up.”
Sarkinen recruited help from his daughter to go a step further, soliciting donations from people in the community. They raised enough money that in late April, crews from Karvonen were able to build the track at no cost to the school.
“It was neat how easy and fast it was,”Sarkinen said.
Melo said the track, where students can earn plastic foot key chains called Fitness Feet to mark milestones, has made a huge difference for his students.
“It just gives them the opportunity to get the feel of a track,” he said. “I’ve had kids say they’ve made friends. They’re a part of something here.”
Andrew Stockton, 11, said he likes the improved trail “a lot more.”
“We don’t have to run in the grass,” Stockton said. “All wet and miserable the rest of the day.”
Marc Berezhnoy said he liked having more room to run instead of being stuck in a “tight space.” The 10-year-old said he plans to try out for track in middle school.
Swindell echoed her teacher and his students, saying the trail is better than anyone could have imagined.
“It’s like the Cadillac version,” Swindell said.
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