Part of Rip City Rally, the Portland Trail Blazers organization visited Mills Elementary School and Ponderosa Middle School today.
Blaze, Douglas Fur and members of the BlazerDancers took part in an assembly to start the day at Mills where several students and teachers participated in an exercise through the Mills Auditorium.
Over 34 students at Ponderosa then participated in a PE Takeover with youth basketball coaches from the Blazers. Moda Health provided a water bottle for each student in the class, which had students participate in basketball drills.
The theme of the day echoed by representatives of the Blazers was good health and positive behavior in school.
Todd Bosma, the Blazers’ Director of Game Operations, encouraged students to stay healthy by eating adequate food and staying active during school.
Bosma organized a visit to Mills with the school’s Dean of Students, Jeff Haudenshild.
“I talked with Mr. H before coming here about bringing Blaze and activities to have an assembly here but I told him I wanted students who were deserving to be in an activity with us,” Bosma said. “I asked Mr. H to find students who payed attention in class, did their assignments, were respectful to classmates and are interactive, kind to their teachers.”
Haudenshild gave Bosma a list of deserving students, and drew four students out of a hat to participate in an exercise.
Ponderosa Physical Education teacher, Joel Woodley, helped bring a set of basketball classes with Blazers personnel to Ponderosa.
Ponderosa students changed into their gym clothes and were able to get one-on-one instruction with three youth basketball coaches, who helped students work on their dribbling, footwork and stability as well as basketball shooting.
