Barbara Lawlor, Nederland.  Thursday morning at Nederland Elementary School. Student bodies hurtling onto mats, skipping over ropes, bouncing on trampolines and laughing gleefully while they went airborne for a few seconds of gravity freedom.

It was the culmination of the Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser. After weeks of talking to people, selling themselves as they promised to run the gauntlet of heart pumping exercises, the students learned about how their hearts work and how to keep them working. People donate money to these kids for their actions, money which goes to the American Heart Association.

NES physical education teacher Mary Joyce organizes the event every year; she sets up stations in the gym that test the student’s physical skills as well as allowing them class time to do what kids do best: run and leap, skip and jump and throw themselves whole-heartedly onto stacks of mats.

The goal each year is to raise $4,000 in aerobic increments. Students earn prizes according to the amount they raise, a bit of incentive. The prizes range from a Rory McFiercely III with a lanyard, a jump rope, a t-shirt and, at the top level, an EZY roller. This year, fourth-grader Gray Schlosser collected $85 to win his prize, earning most of it online.

Part of the healthy heart education involved knowing how to say no to tobacco when pressured by peers.

It wasn’t just health education for the heart, it was health for all body parts, including the teeth.

Newspaper articles advised kids to give up the “healthy” drinks, the sweetened fitness waters that teens consume daily. The articles also explained that sipping on a sweetened drink over a period of hours was worse than drinking it all at once. The prolonged contact with sugar eats away enamel. Even worse are the chewy sour candies that are more harmful than their sugar counterparts.

A 20-ounce bottle of Gatorade contains nine teaspoons of sugar.

Students had a chance to listen to their heart with a stethoscope, hearing the difference between a sedentary heart and one that has recently exercised.

At the end of each class, the students were asked to do some homework over the weekend; to figure out how many screen hours they spend, and instead spend more time engaged in a physical activity.