11.4.2020 – When the Menlo School Middle School cross country students learned they would be starting the year completely in distance learning, they started brainstorming.

Sure, they would run on their own and clock times and miles via apps or the old-fashioned way, logging on paper, but Coach Jorge Chen and the students did one better.

They ran to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley, and legged out a combined 1,518 miles in about eight weeks, raising $2,276.56.

“I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the students and their empathy for others around them who are less fortunate, as well as for the generosity and support of the families and community,” Chen said.

Chen and his 27 students came up with games, such as running musical chairs, running in place on Zoom to music, running bingo and yes, running. On some of those runs, they made a scavenger hunt to keep it lively, and started the Menlo Middle School Cross Country Big Team Race to give them goals and keep motivation high.

“The kids were very excited about the challenge to the point they were asking if they could run on the treadmill on days with poor air quality or run during soccer drills,” Chen added.
Menlo middle school students also had some refreshers on geography and scale. Among the goals for the big team race were running approximate distances:

• 800 miles - length of California
• 1,129 miles - San Francisco to near Calgary, Canada
• 2,280 miles - length of Brazil (Chen was born in São Paulo)
• 2,800 miles - width of the United States

The students had the option to collect pledges (by each mile or a flat rate), and as a whole, Menlo students ran nearly the length of the United States (north to south roughly 1,650 miles).

Next, they’ll be running the world.