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Laughter and good times drowned out the rain at Montevallo Elementary School as students and teachers didn’t let the weather stop the students from enjoying the school’s annual field day festivities on Monday, May 13. (Reporter photo/Donald Mottern)

By DONALD MOTTERN | Staff Writer 

PELHAM – Laughter and good times drowned out the rain at Montevallo Elementary School as students and teachers didn’t let the weather stop the students from enjoying the school’s annual field day festivities on Monday, May 13.

Despite the early rainfall, spirits remained high as the school transformed its field into a vibrant arena echoing with the excitement of Olympic-themed games and activities. This year’s event carried the theme of an Olympic games also served as the closing day of this year’s Multicultural Festival at the MES which began on Friday, May 8.

During Friday’s events, students held an opening ceremony for its Olympic games and experienced a large number of displays, demonstrations and presentations that highlighted different cultures from around the world.

Over the course of the event’s first day, students learned and absorbed information about African, Hispanic, Indian, Japanese and a number of other cultures and countries.

“We planted the seed for this whole thing four years ago,” said Cristan Traylor, a physical education teacher at Montevallo Elementary School. “This was actually something that we thought of doing four years ago and then COVID-19 happened. With it being an Olympic year, we thought that we could merge the two events so we approached the ESL department and merged efforts with them and the field day committee to make this big event.”

After a weekend of anticipation, it was the student’s turn to partake in their games which saw them take part in a list of activities on the school’s field that mirrored a number of Olympic themed sporting events.

“We merged (field day) with this year’s Multicultural Festival to present a two-day event and so this is the field day part of it,” Traylor said. “The students all have several stations like the wet torch relay, a soccer game, a javelin throw, a discus throw and then (what we call) knock-it-off which also incorporates that throwing skill.”

With rain pouring down around them, plungers filled with water stood in for the Olympic torch as the children worked together to transport water from a pool to fill their team’s buckets one run at a time. For the other activities, Frisbees stood in for discus plates and foam missiles served as the student’s javelins.

Meanwhile, teachers all stood in raincoats and ponchos, with some of the students doing the same as children embraced the weather wholeheartedly.

“We’re making it through and we do the best that we can,” Traylor said. “The kids are still having a blast and they love getting wet. It is cool, it feels good, and they love getting wet so they haven’t minded at all.”

Over the course of the morning, students took to the field in rotation with other classes. Following their time on the field, students then moved to the front of the school where they were met with inflatable water slides and the ability to grab snow cones from Kona Ice.

After drying off from those activities, students then spent the day watching Olympic themed movies and educational videos during the down time in their classrooms.

“We do a lot of really great things here (at MES),” Traylor said. “We have a very diverse population of students and it was a lot of fun, it was really cool.”

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