Tarver Trot

Each year Amnisty, my oldest daughter’s elementary school, Tarver, hosts a two mile race called Tarver Trot, for the students and any family members that would like to run with the students. This is usually hosted on the last Friday of the school year. Each grade wears a matching colored shirt provided by the school, and each grade starts their race 20 minutes apart. It’s a very unique event where so many people take part to make it happen and raise money to support the school.

The city’s police department participates by controlling traffic within the neighborhood. Parents, grandparents, and other family members volunteer and are given stations and signs to cheer the students on as they run by. The stations are located about 100 yards apart, along with water stations throughout the run. The run starts in the school neighborhood, moves through a beautiful trail then back to the neighborhood to the finish line. At the finish line, there is a large crowd consisting of volunteers, school staff, and other parents, cheering, shaking pom poms, and taking pictures and videos, treating these kids as if they just completed a marathon. Many of the children look forward to this day and even start practicing in the playground. This year was the first time I was able to participate in this event.

As we began our race, I noticed Amnisty teaming up with a certain student that moved at a slower pace, struggling to run, barely jogging to be exact. At first I was disappointed, as Amnisty is a fast runner, she often out runs me when we exercise together. As we continued the race, the student quickly grew tired and began to walk, each time she walked, Amnisty slowed down and walked with her. She made sure she stayed with that student at all times. Few minutes into the race, I was able to take my shallow competitive lenses off and look at the big picture, my sweet girl did what no student nearby did, she didn’t leave this student behind. She didn’t care if she placed first, or last, she didn’t care who was watching, or anything else for that matter. She did what was right, helped someone who was struggling. I was a proud momma for that and I couldn’t be more blessed!

I hope that we can all take a lesson in this, look around, if anyone is struggling along the way, pause and extend a helping hand, even if that means we miss the goal we’ve been training for, we never know the impact we will have on others.