On Thursday, February 12th, an exciting relay race challenge was held at nearby Shahala Middle School. 10 middle schoolers competed alongside staff members in sunny, warm weather after school in a fun extracurricular activity. What makes this relay race special however, was that it was organized entirely by a student here at Union—Riya Banerjee. 

Riya has been sprinting since 6th grade, and considers it to be very important to who she is. She competes in Track and Field here at Union. When asked about sprinting, she said that, “sprinting has always been a big part of my life and identity,” and that she really wanted to share that love of sprinting with others. To share her passion for sprinting with others, she decided to organize a relay challenge at Shahala, considering it a “wonderful way to share that love!” 

Setting this event up was no easy task, however. In order to organize this event, consent and approval from Shahala’s administrators was required. Luckily, Principal Chris Griffith and Associate Principal Scott Eschels gave their full support for the event, which permitted Riya to coordinate the relay challenge, allowing her to align schedules and other important details. Another big hurdle was outreach to students and parents. To have students participate, they both had to be notified as well as have a consent form filled out for their participation. This proved difficult with Riya noting that “lots of emails were sent to coaches, teachers, Shahala’s ASB, and staff” in order to spread word of the event. Carey Doyle, a teacher at Shahala who also participated in the relay challenge on a staff team, was very impressed with the level of organization and outreach that was done for the event to happen. 

This outreach and hard work proved a success, as over 40 Shahala students signed up to participate. While only 10 showed up on the day of the race, they were still able to form four relay teams, one even being comprised of staff members. Mrs. Doyle expressed that she loved being able to get a staff team together to compete in the race. Riya recounts the races going extremely well, with the final one being the teachers versus a student team. Each team had four members who ran 100 meters each on the Shahala track. In the end, everybody loved it, and everyone also got a medal!

When asked how she felt overall about the event, Riya spoke about how she felt “very grateful for all of the support I got, especially from the teachers, admin, and my friends and family.” She was incredibly proud of the kids who competed in the event and of how well they did. She was very happy that she achieved her goal of sharing her love for track with others, and was overjoyed at the beautiful weather in mid-February, saying, “I feel blessed that it was a beautiful sunny day and everything went smoothly.” 

Events like the one Riya planned are incredible opportunities for students to come together. Mrs. Doyle was impressed with how the event was fully student-driven, and was incredibly proud of the organization, kindness, and dedication shown to coordinate the relay challenge, explaining that “Riya was unbelievably organized and did a great job leading the event…I am very proud of Riya for taking a risk and trying to do something for the greater good of our community.” 

Riya already has plans to do another relay challenge at Shahala towards the end of their track season next school year, in hopes to get more participation from students. This relay challenge was actually the first student-led relay event at Shahala, making it even more impressive how it went overall. Riya’s already brainstorming ways to get more participation, and she can’t wait for the next race.