Student Jump Ropers To Show Skills

At This Weekend’s Duck Race

By Eliza Hallabeck

Before they perform for visitors and participants in the Lions Club Great Pootatuck Duck Race this Saturday, May 29, students in the Moon Jumpers jump rope team practiced their skills under the guidance of the club advisor Pamela Patterson on Wednesday, May 19.

The Moon Jumpers team competes in several tournaments a year and does performances and workshops in the Newtown area, according to Ms Patterson. The team currently has about 20 members and is open to boys and girls age 7 and up through the Newtown Parks and Recreation Department.

(For more information on the Great Pootatuck Duck Race see “Lions Club Is Celebrating A Decade Of Ducks” also in this week’s edition of The Bee.)

While practicing before the start of the Wednesday night meeting at Newtown Middle School, Julie Raigosa, a 9-year-old member of Moon Jumpers, said the group is fun.

“You start with easy tricks, then you go to really hard ones,” said Julie. “When you get to the hard ones and you show your friends, they get kind of embarrassed to see you that good.”

Grace Howgego, an 8-year-old Moon Jumper, said she has been jumping rope for four years.

Jumping and the games the group plays together are Grace’s favorite parts of being a Moon Jumpers members.

“There is this game we play,” said Grace, “it is a jumping in game. We jump in and do three times, then when the whole line is gone we do two times. Then we do one time, and if we do it perfectly we can do zero.”

Another Moon Jumper, Claire Hull, an 11-year-old, said she started jumping with the group last summer.

“It really gets you going,” said Claire.

Madelyn Cole, a 10-year-old, said she has been a member of Moon Jumpers since she was in third grade.

“You get to do different activities,” said Madelyn, “challenge yourself, and meet new friends.”

After open practice, Ms Patterson walked the Moon Jumpers through what they can expect at this Saturday’s Great Pootatuck Duck Race, when the group will be giving a presentation.

“Right now I am trying to pick people to do everything,” said Ms Patterson, adding members should tell her if they do not want to participate.

Multiple members of Moon Jumpers are also preparing to go to a USA Jump Rope National Tournament, being held in Galveston, Texas, in June.

At the USA Jump Rope Regional Tournament, held in Exeter, N.H., last month, members Brianna DelGiudice, Kristina Patterson, Doug Raigosa, and Daisy Zheng took fourth place in Double Dutch Pairs Speed competition, which qualified them for the national level of the competition.

During the regional competition Doug also placed fifth in Male 3-Minute Single Rope Speed, fifth in Male Single Rope Freestyle, and sixth in Male 1-Minute Single Rope Speed. Brianna, Kristina, and Doug Raigosa also placed seventh in Double Dutch Speed Relay, which also qualified them for the upcoming national competition.

Julie Raigosa, Brianna, Kristina, and g Raigosa placed eleventh in Single Rope Speed Relay, and Julie also placed twelfth in Female Single Rope Freestyle during the regional competition.

Group routines and individual routines, roughly 20 to 30 seconds each, will make up the presentation the Moon Jumpers will give at the Great Pootatuck Duck Race on Saturday. Ms Patterson prepared the group for this by playing music for that length of time on Wednesday.

Finishing the Saturday performance, as Ms Patterson told her Moon Jumpers, will be a Double Dutch Routine performed by Daisy, Doug, Brianna, and Kristina.

Kristina said she joined a jump rope program when her family lived in Rhode Island, “and then we moved here, and I wanted to continue jump rope, so my mom made her own team.”

Doug said he has been jumping for two-and-a-half years. He joined with his sister after their mother read about the program with the Parks and Recreation Department, he said.

For video of the Moon Jumpers practice on Wednesday go to www.newtownbee.com.