Track Team Takes Students to Junior Olympics

The Brown Track team is a small team made up of 5-14 year old students from Urbana and Champaign schools. Run by a group of local volunteer coaches, their goal is to provide opportunities to children with limited resources. In the past 5 years, the team has grown from just 8 athletes to 18. This year, over half of those athletes will qualify for the 2011 AAU Junior Olympics in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Families and volunteers have worked very hard this year to get the team to National Qualifying meets and have also raised money for their first year with team uniforms. They are asking the families and the community for help providing the team with the opportunity to travel to the AAU Junior Olympic Games.

"As our team continues to grow, we see the rewards in the faces of each athlete." says Theresa McDaniel, coach and Kindergarten teacher at Prairie Elementary, "They set goals and work hard to achieve them."

The team, with the help of their families and community members, needs to raise about $7000 ̶ enough money to cover travel expenses and hotel accommodations. Currently, they are over halfway there. They will be holding a car wash this Saturday, July 16th at O'Reilly Auto Parts in Champaign (across from Kraft) from 9am-2pm.

Information provided by the Urbana School District.