Once a month, Sunset Ridge Middle School’s gymnasium serves as a community recreation center. PE teacher Joshua Lord organizes Family Fun Nights to promote physical activity and community engagement.

“I’m trying to get more people involved with physical activity, just so they can see that physical activity is fun to do,” Lord said. “The whole purpose of this is to introduce them to something that they might enjoy and they might want to do as a family, maybe at a rec center or at a park.”

Using the school’s PE equipment, Lord introduces families to activities they may not know how to play or not have the equipment to play such as pickleball, badminton, volleyball and soccer.

“I love seeing little siblings because they don’t get a whole lot of PE sometimes at the elementary level, so it’s fun to see them and introduce them to badminton or pickleball or something they might not see at the elementary school level,” Lord said. “I just want the kids to know that there’s more than just the traditional games.”

Family Fun Nights are held once a month from November through March. When the weather is good, they play kickball or soccer on the school field. During the winter months, they play basketball or badminton in the school gymnasium.

The activities usually match whatever sport Lord is currently teaching his PE classes so the equipment is already set up. This also gives students an opportunity to practice the skills they are learning in class and to show off what they can do for their parents. 

Lord varies the days of the week for activities to accommodate other school and community activities. He said even when there’s a low turnout, “everyone still has a blast.”

“Even if all you can do is make it 35 minutes, come and enjoy 35 minutes of physical activity with your kids and maybe meet some new people—it’s a great social thing, too,”
Lord said.

Many families come to the activities together but sometimes kids just show up with their friends.

Kingston Foust, a sixth grader, brought his friend Dylan Lamb for basketball night in January.

“I called him to see if he wanted to go because this place is awesome,” Kingston said. As sixth graders, the two boys like that they get the chance to become familiar with the middle school—the building, the students and the PE teacher—before they begin attending the school
next year.

Kingston’s mom, Melissa Foust, said her family goes to Family Fun Night nearly every month.

“We usually bring a ton of neighbor kids—just pile them in—‘Let’s go play,’” she said.

The activities have been a welcome option to pass cold and dark winter nights since her boys—a seventh grader, a sixth grader and an almost 2-year-old—are very active and the older two are involved in sports. The older boys enjoy learning new sports techniques and socializing with friends, and the baby is happy to run around, chase the balls and swing the paddles. If they didn’t go to the activity nights, Foust said her kids would probably just sit at home watching TV.

“My kids need to get out of the house in winter,” she said. “We’re so far west we don’t have a rec center close—it’s a jaunt to get to Gene Fullmer [Rec Center.] We plan on coming to every one to get the wiggles out.”

Lord hopes the regular physical and social activity creates a sense of school community. He wants the school to be viewed like a community center—a closer and cheaper alternative to a rec center—for former, current and future Sunset Ridge families.

The Family Fun Nights meet the state PE standard to encourage students to enjoy physical activity with family and friends outside of school.

“I’m not trying to make them high school athletes, I just want them to like physical activity—anything,”
Lord said. λ