Sunday, April 15, 2007

USFooty Kids Roll Easter Eggs at the White House


(Washington DC) On Easter Monday, participants in the Washington DC USFooty Kids/Auskick program and their families spent the morning the the South Lawn at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.  The theme of this year's Easter Egg Roll was childhood obesity, physical activity and fitness (which my wife thought was very funny given the amount of chocolate on hand for the kids).  Melissa Johnson, Executive Director of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, was gracious enough to give USFooty Kids 25 tickets for the event.  Denis Ryan, USFooty Kids National Director, passed the tickets onto the local chapter.


USFooty Kids parents were very excited to get the opportunity to participate in the event as it is extremely difficult to get the few publicly available tickets.  Families are known to camp out over night to get tickets for the event. Despite a very cold Spring morning, everyone was very excited about the opportunity to get up close and personal with the White House.


Sporting footy jumpers, USFooty Kids T-shirts and Auskick Baseball caps in lieu of spring dresses and pink sweater vests, the families had a great time rolling, finding and painting Easter Eggs, watching magic shows and keeping an eye out for our host, Mrs Bush.  For those not aware, an Easter Egg roll involves a wooden spoon, a colored egg, a grassy hill and some marked running lanes. The kids push the egg down the hill to try to be first, although everyone is a winner!  Some of the USFooty Kids were pretty excited and may have been penalized for "throwing" rather than "pushing" the egg down the hill. Other USFooty Kids were lucky enough to be read to by Mrs Bush and Mrs Cheney.  For fans of "West Wing" it was cool to walk past the actual West Wing of the White House and imagine President Bartlett out there chatting with his closest advisors.