Hooping for Hope
May 25, 2009
Having walked in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer twice now, I can tell you that walking 13 straight miles is no small feat. And having been hooping for a few months, I can also tell you that walking and hooping can be trickier than you think.
So I have to give major kudos to the 50 people who hooped their way through all thirteen miles of Nashville’s Country Music Half Marathon this year.* Some of them walked, and some actually ran! Check out the full story here.
Not only did their efforts raise money for a good cause, their hooping antics are raising awareness about the relentless disease of breast cancer.
More than anything else I wonder about these women training for the event. I mean, I’m from the South**, and crazy antics like hooping down the walking track get you stared at. Hard. And talked about by your neighbors and that guy behind the counter at the corner store.
I can just hear how that conversation would go down in my hometown now.
Counter Guy: The other day I saw the craziest thing! A grown woman walking down at the track with a HULA HOOP! Can you believe that?
Neighbor: Yes, I can! That’s my neighbor. Every day for the last few weeks, she’s been leaving her house with that big ol’ hoop in tow. I wondered where she was going. Then, last Tuesday, my husband Everett told me he saw her walking the track and hula hooping when he was on his way home from work. I just couldn’t believe it! Hula Hooping on the walking track, right there on the side of the highway for God and everyone to see! What a spectacle! <whispers> I think she’s gone a little batty.
Counter Guy: Well, I’ll be! Sounds like she certainly has!
Perhaps, though, crazy antics like these just open up the opportunity to talk about the real reason they were doing it in the first place… to fight breast cancer!
Maybe next year I’ll try to make my way down to Nashville for this glorious event. The organizers are hoping it will grow, and hooping for 13.1 miles sounds like just the right kind of challenge to me!
Who’s in?
* Yes, I know I’m a month late. Just saw the story! Just started the blog!
** And I mean the REAL South.
Another Reason to Lurve Our First Lady
May 22, 2009
Okay, I was somewhat skeptical at first, but now I have a trifecta of sources telling me that Michelle Obama is a Hooper.
Can you imagine hooping in the White House? How awesome would that be? (I’d have to set some serious limits for myself.)
Apparently, our super hot First Lady can really groove. People reported today that she used two hoops in a recent talent show at Camp David. (Dude, seriously? I think my girl crush has just reached new, unthinkable heights. Swoon.)
Iowa School Raises $40k with Hoop Sales
May 21, 2009
Holy Jebus! You know the hoop rage has hit hard when a private school in Iowa is raking in tens of thousands of dollars by selling hoops!
Let’s do some math here… $40,000 raised at $15 a pop (errr, hoop)…
That’s nearly 2,600 hoops sold!
And if we take Dubuque’s just-under-60k population into account (and make some serious assumptions about how those hoops have been distributed throughout the lovely area), we can surmise that approximately 4% of the population of Dubuque has the Hoop Bug! Or, errr, at least a hoop. 
Either way, I’m impressed. Go Dubuque! And go Resurrection School!
The folks here saw a need (money for computers) and a potential solution (making and selling hoops), and they went for it.
The results? Not only have they raised enough money so far to buy 50 new computers (effectively tripling the count of 25 they had before!), but they’re helping introduce a fun, sustainable fitness option to kids and adults alike.
“It’s a great way to exercise, and it’s fun. A lot of people tell me they haven’t exercised for years, and they start hula hooping and it’s made a big difference,” said Cindi Haugen, the brain behind Resurrection’s grand hoop fundraiser plan.
Kudos to Cindi for her fantastic plan!
From the Mouths of Babes: Hooping Rocks!
May 18, 2009
Trinity Children’s Center in Burlington, Vermont, is in the middle of a Hooping Extravaganza!
These super cool teachers got their kids hooping. And, guess what? The kids are getting their parents hooping!
Some of those kids are already much better hoopers than I am. So jealous!
