North Shore teens raise record amount — before field day fun — for Chicago elementary students

Music blasting, parachutes flying and the sun shining set the tone as more than 400 children ran around Northfield’s Fox Meadow Park on Thursday morning during LEARN Excel Charter School’s annual field day.

Potato sack relay races, freeze dance and the bouncy house drew the most laughter, as kids fell over, sang and played games. 

For the past 15 years, New Trier-area high-schoolers have fundraised for LEARN, a west-side Chicago elementary school. Family donations, local sponsorships and an annual benefit concert support the school’s music program and yearly field day.

This year, the high school students raised more than $87,000, a record-breaking amount in the history of the partnership. The field day celebrates the collaboration between the high-schoolers and the grammar-schoolers.

Recent New Trier High School graduate Nate Gale is a LEARN Board co-chair for both the annual benefit concert and field day.

“We do all this work the whole year, raising money and planning these events,” Gale said. “And just when you actually get to see them, it’s fun because it … puts a face to all the work that you’ve been doing. But also the kids really just have so much fun. As much fun as I’m having, the kids are having 100,000 times more fun because the day is put on for them.”

High-schoolers in red shirts manned more than 10 different stations during the celebration. 

The bright colors of a parachute flew into the sky as the children ran underneath upon the instruction of the student-leader. The gaga pit incited intense competition and high-pitched yelps, with kids lunging at the ground to avoid being struck with the ball. Some students caught their breath and a break from the sun by coloring underneath the arts and crafts table.

Each kid wielded their own special, bright-red field day water bottle and sprayed one another when it got too hot. Gale drove a golf cart around the field, stopping at each station and offering more water and fruit snacks. Later, the students all enjoyed lunch and popsicles.

New Trier rising senior Scarlett Harper, a LEARN Board co-chair for field day, reflected on curating the experience for the kids.

“I know for me, field day in elementary school was a core memory, so it’s very exciting to be involved with providing that to all of these kids,” Harper said.

LEARN’s field day tradition started 15 years ago, when the school operated out of a church and had no outdoor space. When the Winnetka-based partnership started, the school’s first ask was for something for the students to do outdoors.

Carrie Baron teaches yoga at the charter school as a volunteer. She has been one of the adult field day planners for years and said most of the games and activities used to be homemade.

“It’s just all about spreading joy,” Baron said. “The kids love it. I have a relationship with a lot of those kids at the school, because I see them for yoga, so it’s so fun to see them here in the sunshine in the field, and it just keeps getting better and better every year.”

The impact of the annual donation goes further than field day. 

The fundraising efforts benefit LEARN Excel’s music program, bringing the students instruments and musical instruction, which are shown off during an annual concert. 

“The instruments and things that we’ve been able to get from the partnership (are) things that they probably would have never even seen before, if it hadn’t been for those (high school) kids,” said Kisha Briggs, LEARN Excel’s principal who has been with the school since the partnership began in 2010.

Briggs said she hopes the giving spirit of the high-schoolers impacts how the elementary students will act in the future.

“We always refer back to how the (high school) kids go and organize field days for you guys, one day you … will be in a position where you can organize things for our pre-K,” Briggs said. “We try to use that as an example for them, and so they look forward to that.”

Harper said that many of the LEARN Board students are involved in orchestra and band programs at New Trier. By fundraising, they are giving back to a cause close to their hearts.

“For a lot of our board, the reason they’re involved with this is that music education has been a great source of community and growth in their own lives, so they want to make sure that is an opportunity for all kids,” Harper said. “ … It provides a way for kids to find their voice and a way for them to express themselves.”

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