On an ordinary Thursday afternoon in January when most students at Humboldt Collegiate Institute (HCI) were in class, 80 teenage girls took possession of the school's gymnasium for a "gym-blast."
"I knew there was a gym-blast company in Saskatchewan," said Kerri Archibald, the girls' physical education teacher at HCI. "I decided to do it as a final project for the phys- ed classes this semester."
Archibald combined the Grade 9, 10, 11 and 12 girls classes and turned them over to Hannah Driscoll, who runs gym-blasts for schools out of the Saskatoon branch of Youth for Christ.
The 27-year-old youth worker spoke to the Journal about the purpose of gym-blasts, and of the national organization, Youth for Christ.
"We meet kids at things like gym-blasts and then we take them on breakaway trips or mission trips overseas," she explained. "We've been doing gym-blasts out of Saskatoon Youth for Christ for 20 years. We do about 100 schools [in a year] and we go everywhere. We travelled to Alberta last year for the Grey Cup."
During a gym-blast, Driscoll takes the participants, who are split into four teams, each identifiable by colours, through a number of fun games. The girls elect leaders for each team. In the case of HCI's gym-blast, two leaders were elected for each team of approximately 20 girls.
The purpose, she says, is for the girls to have fun but also to learn about teamwork, participation, and good sportsmanship through practising Christian attitudes. The teams aim to take care of each other, serve each other, and to promote leadership among their peers.
Before the games begin, each team of girls cheered for their colour as they paraded into the gym and took their place in one of the four corners of the room. The girls looked as colourful as Crayola crayons in their bright yellow, green, red and blue get-ups. Some found wigs in their team's colour, others donned antennae with red hearts. Whatever they could find to match their team's colour, the girls accessorized!
"All the girls went beyond just putting on their shirts," said Christine Martinuk, one of the red team's two leaders. "The enthusiasm was catching, and not one girl forgot to dress in her colours."
The first game of the session, Pirates' Cove, was like a frenzied blend of primary colours and high-pitched screams as the girls raced around the gym trying to grab coloured strips from the opposing teams. The team that managed to keep the highest number of their own coloured strips while taking strips from the other teams, won. That was the "warm-up."
After about an hour of games, Driscoll called a "time out," and talked to the girls about the organization she works for and what they do.
"Usually partway through we do a little talk," said Driscoll, "just talking about how they can make a difference in their community. My talk today will be about serving other people, so I'll get them to think of examples of other girls who made a difference in the world around them."
From a student's point of view, Martinuk said she thought the students were fairly receptive to what Driscoll had to say.
"It was good to have someone like that come in to the school," Martinuk added. "It can give people an incentive to do some of the things she talked about when they hadn't really considered it before."
With 10 or 11 games lined up, the two hours sped by, providing many occasions for laughter and for applying the ultimate lesson of the exercise, teamwork. It all ended with a tug-of-war between the four teams before the girls, tired but happy, helped clean up the gym.
