Earlier this month, we had a very special guest at the Move2Learn Teens Club at Casa Chirilagua: Emilio Bernal, the 92-year-old grandfather of Rebeca Gore, M2L’s community engagement manager! Emilio is an accomplished ping pong player, having won a number of various championships and a senior Olympic title in the sport!
Emilio shared some of his game secrets to the Alexandria public middle school students. Equipped with new skills, they challenged him 2 v. 1 for some friendly competition. He even played with Casa’s new executive director, Hjarman Cordero! Might come as no surprise, but Emilio, who hails from Cuba, made his opponents sweat. 🙂
The Teens Club at Casa is one of 20 Move2Learn’s Outside the Classroom Programs. These clubs are so important for the well-being and social-emotional health of our students and key to their academic growth. They also address top school priorities: 1) school attendance; 2) student focus; 3) student behavior; and 4) mental health.
This club, like all of our clubs, comes at no cost—meaning no financial barriers. We make sure our students have everything they need to participate, even things like running shoes and sports bras. Clubs take place right at school—or in this case at Casa—meaning no transportation barriers, either.
All that goodness combined with our bonus guest = priceless:) We love the intergenerational exchange and were happy that the students could learn about the mind-body connection from someone with over 75 years of experience!
