Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Primary School Caringbah leads Australia in heart.
Only one school in the nation has raised more money for Jump Rope for Heart, a Heart Foundation initiative that teaches children healthy habits while raising funds for research into cardiovascular disease.
Together, the Our Lady of Fatima community has raised a total of $27,419 at the time of publication, with some individual students collecting nearly $2,000 single-handedly.
Olive Whitworth, a Kindergarten student who has had four surgeries to correct a congenital heart disease is currently the school’s top fundraiser with a total of $1,949.28.
“My mum taught me how to skip,” she said. “It’s really fun for me and it makes me feel happy – I loved the skipping disco because I skipped a lot.”
The disco was part of the school’s Jump Off Day on Monday 2 July, which also included performances, healthy snacks and lots of skipping.
The event’s organisers, Sports Teacher Taylar Puyskaric and Year 5 Teacher Melissa Flynn, said they chose Jump Rope for Heart because of fond memories from their own time at school, and hadn’t realised just how many members of their community had been impacted by heart disease.
“Reading through the fundraising pages, there are so many kids that were born with holes in their hearts, or they’ve had their grandma pass away from a heart attack,” said Ms Flynn.