“Board Game Club HURRAH!” an Express Grant awarded to Steeple Run Elementary school teacher Jean Abbott, funded the purchase of new board games for students who cannot participate in outdoor recess. Abbott got the idea for Board Game Club HURRAH! when she became an Illinois Make-A-Wish Volunteer.
“I signed up for two kids that were in Naperville,” Abbott said. “And one of them has a heart condition that makes it difficult for him to run around at recess. When kids can’t go outside for recess they’re sent to the office for the secretary or nurse to watch them while they play on an iPad or computer. I wanted these kids to know they weren’t an afterthought, so the Board Game Club HURRAH! was born.”
The indoor recess program is available across six elementary schools this year, including Steeple Run, Maplebrook, Mill Street, Meadow Glens, River Woods, and Kingsley. It is available to any student who cannot participate in outdoor recess, whether due to a health concern or fasting for religious reasons.
“We wanted to start small, with just a few schools offering the Board Game Club, because I didn’t know if we could get enough volunteers,” Abbott said. “But I think the volunteers enjoyed it and felt like they were a grandparent who gets to play a game with these kids. They all seemed excited about this.”
The Board Game Club HURRAH! uses HURRAH volunteers, or Happy Upbeat Retirees and Residents Actively Helping, to run the board game club while teachers have meetings and other responsibilities during recess. HURRAH volunteer Karen Moreton has been coming multiple days every week to play with students in the club.
When she discovered the Board Game Club HURRAH! volunteer opportunity, “I was interested in doing it,” Moreton said. “I mean, who doesn’t want to play board games? My kids always loved playing board games, so I thought that would just be a fun thing to do.”
Both Moreton and Abbott felt students would benefit more from having an engaging social interaction during recess versus playing on an iPad. What they didn’t expect was for the program to be so popular amongst students.
“There are kids who walk through the Learning Commons and see us playing and have said ‘How do I get into this?’ and somebody says ‘You have to break a bone,” Abbott jokes.
The first student who participated in Board Game Club HURRAH had broken his arm and could not play outside during recess.
“You could tell he was a very active kid. He broke his arm playing football, and I could sense he was having a little trouble adjusting to the cast,” Moreton said. “On his last day of indoor recess he told me, ‘You helped me get through a very difficult time.’”
The Board Game Club HURRAH! at Steeple Run has served students coming from one fifth grade class, taught by Eunice Chaney.
“I felt at peace because I knew that they were spending time off their Chromebooks. They enjoyed having this option,” Chaney told Abbott. “I had a lot of students unable to go outside for medical reasons so this was a blessing for me and my students.”
