Jessica in the news again!!!!

Mrs. Connecticut is off and running!
Southington Observer 5/29/2009

This Saturday’s “KidsMarathon” event will attract students from
seven state schools to the track at Southington High School, giving newly minted
Mrs. Connecticut Jessica Bruenn another chance to draw attention to her goal of helping kids
stay in shape.Bruenn, a fifth-grade teacher at Strong Elementary School, will attend, along with members of her school’s running club, which she created. The “Kids Marathon” is a national fitness initiative that challenges students to run the equivalent of a 25-mile marathon over time (notall at once), keeping notes on their progress in a “runner’s log.” Bruenn said this event and other similar activities had the potential to keep kids off the couch and staying active.“I don’t want kids to just say ‘I need to exercise,’” she said. “The idea is to get them saying ‘I
want to run around and play tag.’” Unlike the “Miss America” or “Miss USA” pageants, which are primarily full of college-age women, The “Mrs. America” competition is focused on married
women with steady careers. It began in 1978 and the final competition is televised annually.
Another unique element of the Mrs. America competition is that there was no local contest to
win beforehand. Bruenn was able to walk into the recent Mrs. Connecticut competition in Bedford, MA, impress the judges, and walk out with the crown. Though she had been
in some pageants years ago, Bruenn said she got back into the competitions for the chance to
spread her message. “You can do a lot through pageantry. It’s like your own soapbox,”
Bruenn said. “Right now, the CDC [Center for Disease Control] says 1 out of 3 kids are obese.
That alone tells you something needs to be done. We need to be screaming out this.”
Her new title has already brought much more attention to her classroom, which she said
the kids have enjoyed. She recalled one incident where one of students asked another
teacher, “Do you know who this is? She won Mrs. Connecticut!” Staff members at the
school also seem impressed, and have various memorabilia about Bruenn’s pageant victory
on a whiteboard in central office. “I’m very excited she’s taken the initiative to develop a physical fitness club for Strong,” said Principal Linda Lackner. “Her energy and enthusiasm
has been transferred to the students and now they’re happy to run on Tuesdays and Thursdays.” The end of the school year will give Bruenn the chance to devote more
time and energy to various events, including the national competition in July. For now, she said she’s still getting the hang of balancing her new obligations with work in the classroom. “It’s a shock,” Bruenn said. “I haven’t been able to breathe.”
The Kids Marathon
event begins this Saturday
at 9:30 am, at Southington
High School’s track.
http://www.southingtonobserver.com/05_29_09/04.pdf