Messages to our Youth |
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The children will be encouraged to consider their ambitions in adulthood, discuss their dreams and have an opportunity to ask questions about the run.
Penong, SA. September 2010. Year 2 to 7 Students:
Esperance, WA. September 2010. 60 Year 9 Students:  The students of Esperance were interactive and came up with some good answers, showing they were listening to the message about what is in our food these days. The teachers afterwards said that the message seemed to have hit home, and the level of attention I got from them was good. I spoke mainly on companies packaging tricks, how they hide these harmful additives behind confusing code numbers I pointed out companies using slogans like "All Natural" and "99% Fat Free" are designed to entice the customer to take the product off the shelf, pulling the customer in with words that rule they way we are taught to think about food. I outlined the basics of supply and demand, and noted that if everyone was to gradually demand more and more Organic products, the supply would increase, and the cost would have to come down. The students indicated that they had been taught some of these economic patterns in class. I touched on the fundamentals of organic farming versus use of persticides and other chemicals. One student asked what I thought of GM foods, I'm not sure what his dad is farming, but I hope my response didn't upset him! We headed outside for a photo. Thankyou Esperance Senior High School.  Ravensthorpe, WA. September 2010. Year 3,4,5,6 Students:  I was glad I came back to Ravensthhorpe this Monday morning, officially the run yesterday had taken me past the town on a Sunday, (and past my 10,000km marker!) but it was under 80km to drive back and deliver the message about additives we are being fed in "foodstuffs" on our supermarket shelves... (mainly the synthetic/toxic ones to be avoided). The kids and teachers alike had plenty of questions and I was happy to answer them as I had a table to rest on while I did so. Most of the senior students unfortunately, were away at Esperance for the day, though my message fell upon young ears, I hope they know now to nag their parents to buying them good wholesome, if not organic food, and keep the synthetically coloured, heavily processed and cleverly packaged and labelled (and usually relatively expensive by weight) items away from their bodies.Albany, WA. September 2010. Year 9 Students:  Until now all my talks have been at Primary Schools, so in order to address 3 classes of Year 9 students, my talk had to take a more mature approach, and I knew I didn't have to wrap the message of exactly what is is our "food" these days, in cotton wool. Leading staff member "Jamie" got involved with the talk, showing the students how to see if "Hair and Feathers" were being added to "cheap" foodstuffs by being labeled as 920 in the list of ingredients. By the reaction we got I'm sure the kids will be avoiding that one in future. I was able to describe what an unbelievably difficult logistical challenge this is, day in day out, always on the road, keeping everything from team members happy to kids in bed on time, andrunning 5 hours a day. I'm sure it'll pay off in the long run, but standing infront of about 100 unimpressible 14 year olds, who will grow up and save rain forests, find a cure for cancer and take holidays on the moon, I tried to point out one very small but significant matter.... I started in Sydney. Broken down further, for those who missed the point.... I started. And, with no excuses, I'll finish. Th secret is to look for the way to make it happen, not the way to throw in the towel. I just hope that I got through to at least one kid that day. Burketown State School May 2010  A happy bunch of kids welcomed me into their classroom. They did a great job of naming the major places around Australia that I am running through, named a lot of healthy foods that I eat on my run and listed a lot of bad foods that I obviously steer clear of like processed cereals, packaged frozen meals and synthetic ingredients. I was asked what I would do if I was to still be running when it was my birthday, I told them that I'd have a cake that was flavoured and coloured with natural fruits instead of artificially coloured icing. I encouraged them to stay fit and healthy throughout their lives, finding an interesting sport to continue to do throughout adulthood so they don't become sedentary. Happiness is a lot easier to achieve when you have a happy balanced lifestyle.
Georgetown School Kids, Etheridge Shire. May, 2010 They shared their own athletic achievements with me. While others indicated they were inspired to start jogging a few times a week. Some kids who lived along the Savannah Way were able to describe their property entrances. Tonight in particular on my way to Gilbert River I'm to look out for a Mangrove Farm..."It'll have the sign with all the bullet holes in it"! |
Sarah Mycroft's favourite part of this running event is the opportunity to speak at functions and to students at remote, town and city schools alike. Topics include:
Salt Creek Primary students returned back from school holidays. All 14 students were present and ready to hit me with some great geographical knowledge of Australia and set with open ears to take in the messages I have about the hidden ingredients that are in "food" on our supermarket shelves. The kids listed MSG, artificial sugar, preservatives, unnatural colours and salt as some of the nasties we could find if we looked into our ingredients harder. I spent the time between recess and lunch explaining how to identify some ingredients that are hidden as "numbers" and showed them what some of the numbers meant, pointed out that some of the numbers that are allowed in our Australian food are banned in other countries as they are suspected carcinogens. We "busted" some interesting myths about the food we are "told" by commercials on TV are good for us, like wheat bread and diary products, which could easily be replaced with millet/rye/spelt/rice-flour breads to reduce the gluten intakeand goat based cheeses and milk to replace the larger fat globules found in cow-based dairy products. We also had a look at the stomach and what foods it expects to receive each day, foods which are easily recognisable as nutritious for the body to extract the vitamins from it. NOT foods which are processed, overcooked or completely destroyed by microwaving, leaving the bloodstream in confusion as to what it should actually DO with the foreign objects delivered there. Like we started the lesson with a warning about the things in our kitchen that we call "food" these days: "You can Survive... but what you want is to THRIVE" so we ended with another saying..."IF YOU CAN'T GROW IT....DON'T EAT IT!" There is the safest rule to live by. 
At first my facts were questioned, my knowledge turned inside out, so it wasn't until I brought out my "Bible" of all numbers and colours and synthetic additives that their firing of questions took a sudden turn. The design of their questions quickly switched from cheeky/tricky to that borne of real concern. "So what IS safe to eat when you are pregnant" "What ISthe consequence of eating ammonia" (Ammonia is in colour 150d found in Vegemite and Gravox powder for example). For one and a half hours I was bombarded with questions that luckily my 6 years of study on the topic could field. A great bunch of kids, I had a truely rewarding time. I thought the first encounter with an electronic whiteboard was going to be the highlight of the visit for me, but the kids outshone all things material. Rock On Penong!
I arrived there on sports day. The kids were sweltering out on the athletics field running 200m heats. After lunch I was able to address the kids and encourage them to stay fit all year round, not just during sports time of the year. Talking to them through a megaphone on the sports field they all sat cross legged under their house tents. They asked some interesting questions, such as if I wore shoes... looking down to my own feet, I realised I hadn't got any on! It's simply too hot up here to even contemplate shoes. I assured them I did, but later on as I sat and watched the predominantly indigenous pupils racing, I noticed not one of them had a pair on. When it was time for teacher/parent races, I noticed that the P.E. teacher took his shoes off to race! I got chatting with Shirley, a proud elder who had 14 grandchildren in the school. She said that two of hers had been to the Indigenous All Schools and travelled interstate for races.
Well behaved children sat and listened to stories of my trip around Australia so far. Maybe rendered incomprehensible that I've run 3150km from Sydney, they were more amazed that I had run from Georgetown over the past few days; and that i didn't trip over Kangaroos! It's only the dead ones that pose any really threat, and when they're stinking as much as they do, they are easy to avoid. The children were asked to think of what red cordial may be made out of; cherries and sugar was the answer. I set them straight, and to the delight of the teachers I encouraged them to try squeezing their own juice when they got home that afternoon. The kids had plenty of questions and they even let me in on a locally known cross country shortcut to Burketown; thanks for that, but I have to follow Highway number 1. The school headmistress, Fiona told me that even though this is an isolated town of 300 inhabitants, they have total access to all the goods from Woolworths online shopping. Woolworths and Coles have plenty of Organic selections of food at affordable prices.
After a brief introduction of myself, I dived straight for the cover of "Question-time". Boy oh boy were these kids full of queries... The kids bombarded me with technical and logistical questions for nearly an hour!