Lake Ridge sixth graders visit the White House

An invitation from President Obama brought 32 Lake Ridge Middle School students to the White House’s south lawn last month where they participated in sports activities with Olympic athletes and even met the president himself.

Prior to the event at the White House, several Olympians came to the school to share their life experiences with the sixth-graders. They offered demonstrations of their sport and promoted Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, events subsequently awarded to Rio de Janeiro.

The program at the White House was also in sup port of Chicago’s Summer Olympic bid. In addition, the program highlighted the Obama administration’s commitment to service, healthy living and youth sports.

“The original contact came by phone from the Office of Public Engagement at the White House only six days before the event,” said Terri Thompson, Principal Jo Fitzgerald’s secretary. “The students were wild with excitement."

More than 400 sixth-graders were on the edge of their seats in the auditorium the morning they greeted Olympic medalists Arlene Limas, Myles Porter and Ryan Reser.

The U.S. Paralympics, formed in 2001, is a division of the U.S. Olympic Committee. It is dedicated to becoming the world leader in the Paralympic sports movement and promoting excellence in the lives of people with physical disabilities.

Porter is the third visually impaired athlete to be nationally ranked among his sighted peers, narrowly missing a medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. He finished fifth in his weight class.

Limas made history in 1988 when she became the first American and first female to win a gold medal in the sport of Tae Kwan Do at the 24th Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. She invited any student who had taken Tae Kwan Do to stand up. She proceeded to greet them in true Tae Kwan Do fashion as, in unison, they responded by returning her greeting with a gracious bow.

“That’s what’s really neat about my sport. We’re really respectful to one another,” Limas said.

Limas invited 11-year-old Donovan to the stage and demonstrated some energetic kicks common to the sport. Donovan’s willing participation earned him the honor of wearing Limas’ gold medal around the room so that each student could see it up close. When asked how many of them had watched the Olympics on TV, nearly every hand in the room went up. The significance of seeing an Olympic gold medal was not lost on these young people.

Before the sixth-graders returned to their classrooms they had the chance to ask the athletes questions and receive autographed pictures. Paralympian Myles Porter and Olympian Ryan Reser proceeded to let themselves be flipped and thrown on mats to the delight of all. The excitement reached a fever pitch when they announced it was the principal’s turn.

Finally, 32 Lake Ridge students, chosen in a lottery, traveled to the White House with their principal and a couple of faculty members. Two of the students, seventh-grader Kelsey Fields and eighth-grader Brian Wormeldurf, stood on the presentation platform with the president and Mrs. Obama. The remaining students and staff were divided into groups to attend different Olympic demonstrations. All of the students received a promotional 2016 Olympic t-shirt.