Portsmouth students take part in Hoops for Heart fund-raiser

70 kids and their family members raise money for healthy hearts

By Jim McGaw
Posted 2/17/18

PORTSMOUTH — The basketballs were flying in every direction during the annual Hoops for Heart fund-raiser at Portsmouth Middle School Thursday afternoon.

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Portsmouth students take part in Hoops for Heart fund-raiser

70 kids and their family members raise money for healthy hearts

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — The basketballs were flying in every direction during the annual Hoops for Heart fund-raiser at Portsmouth Middle School Thursday afternoon.

Hoops for Heart is a national education and fund-raising event sponsored by the American Heart Association and the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE).

“This is our 12th year,” said Lesly Choinski, a health and physical education teacher at the school who leads the fund-raiser. “Every year we raise anywhere fro $1,000 to almost $5,000.”

Some people didn’t play basketball, but donated to the American Heart Association anyway.

This year the format was modified to allow for students to engage with older family members in more competitive play, said Tara McCarthy, another phys-ed teacher involved in the event. “In the past we’ve done just done a couple of afternoon activities, such as an obstacle course in the lunch room and some different basketball contests, as well as hula-hooping and ping-pong,” she said. 

“But, this year we wanted to get the older kids involved a little bit and they wanted to do more of a competition-style event, so we changed it to a tournament,” Ms. McCarthy added. “We also wanted to get kids with their parents and their brothers and sisters — that interaction — doing something together rather than playing video games.”

They call it “Runts and Grunts”: The runts were the middle school students and the grunts everyone from the high school and older.

“It’s a great opportunity to not only involve the parents but their siblings,” said Ms. Choinski. “Some kids came down from high school to play with their younger siblings, which is just awesome.”

Daddies’ little girls

Two daughter/father teams were seen squaring off against each other for one game: Tara and Brian Finnegan against Olivia and Craig O’Connor. Both girls are 11.

Mr. Finnegan said he was volunteered for the event. 

“My daughter put my name on the list and said, ‘Hey, guess what?’ But it’s a great event, and we play basketball at home all the time,” he said.

“I really like basketball,” Tara said. “I play Portsmouth Youth Basketball, too. It’s a really fun sport.” 

Olivia was having a ball, too. “I really like basketball and I want to sign up for it. I’m not playing it yet, except in gym,” she said.

Mr. O’Connor said he decided to participate for a couple of reasons.

“It’s hard to say no to my daughter, first of all. But, I also have some heart issues in my family — my sister, and a couple of family members who died of heart issues years ago,” he said. “So, it’s a good cause. And, my daughter wants to play basketball, so it’s a great way to get involved with her.”

In all, 35 two-on-two teams played a series of eight-minute games in the middle school gym during the event, which started after school at 2:30 p.m. and was expected to go to about 4:30 p.m. Needless to say, it was a hectic scene.

“We’re really running four tournaments in one gymnasium,” said Ms. Choinski, who never stopped moving Thursday, writing in scores, answering students’ questions and directing participants to their next game. 

“As a phys-ed teacher, we’re used to organized chaos,” she said with a laugh.

Portsmouth Middle School, Hoops for Heart

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