Congratulations Denise Waters

Denise Waters teaches a 4th grade class at Norman Rockwell Elementary school in Redmond, a city on the east side of Seattle, Washington. For years it’s been my pleasure to count Denise and her husband Tim as good friends of mine.

Denise and I have been planning some sort of collaboration in which my walk, and the things I see and learn along the way, will be integrated into a unit she’ll be teaching this upcoming school year. We haven’t nailed down the details of that collaboration yet — we are waiting for my walk to start and her new school year to begin.

Anyway, the collaboration possibilities took on a new dimension the other day when Denise’s new class was accepted into the Global Children’s Challenge program. GCC aims to cut back on childhood obesity by getting kids to walk — the GCC’s tagline is “Get the world moving.” In addition to encouraging the kids to walk, the GCC adds an international exchange element in which the kids explore the history, geography, and cultures of 50 locations around the world.

This just came up the other day, so we don’t know yet how we’ll make the most of it, but it’s adding an exciting dimension to our project.

Congratulations Denise on getting accepted into the GCC program. If I had a kid, I would want him or her in a class with a teacher who cares about the kids as much as you do.