LYNNFIELD — Students and teachers at Huckleberry Hill Elementary adorned the black and gold and piled into the gym Wednesday for a presentation from the Boston Bruins’ BFit School Assembly Program. Along with the free assembly, $3,000 was donated to the school for wellness education.
A slew of special guests, including NESN personality and former Bruins goalie Andrew Raycroft and Bruins mascot Blades, visited the school to teach the local children about the importance of having healthy behaviors.
Huckleberry Hill was selected after a resident nominated the school for the BFit Hat Trick For Health Contest, where five other schools also won an assembly and a $3,000 donation.
Director of Health, Fitness, and Wellness for the Boston Bruins Foundations and former Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Bruins, John Whitesides, led the 40-minute presentation, where topics like eating healthy and being active outside were touched on.
Kicking off the special appearances was a quick video greeting from 17-year Bruins veteran and current captain, Brad Marchand, who reminded the students to “make sure you go outside and stay fit.”
President of the Boston Bruins Foundation and former Bruins forward Bob Sweeney were also in attendance at the event.
“We had so many Bruins players that lived in Lynnfield because we used to practice in Danvers… So, Lynnfield is a great Bruins community, and we’re happy to be here,” he said. “It’s very important to stay active, right? Keep your muscles strong and just be moving all the time.”
Sweeney and Whitesides presented Principal Lauren King and a group of Huckleberry students with a check for $3,000 that will go towards the health and wellness education of the school.
“It’s amazing and exciting; we have to plan,” King said about using the donation. “I’m going to talk to our PE staff and see if we need any more equipment for the gym or for the recess grounds or anything to help keep the kids active.”
Representatives from BFit partners National Grid and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts also took the time to speak to the crowd of children, teaching them techniques for taking care of mental health and educating them on what to do when an alarm goes off.
Other lessons taught at the assembly included the necessity of eating healthy with colorful, nutritious plates and the importance of drinking water throughout the day.
“I get to do these school visits quite often, and the best part about it for me is to talk to you kids about nutrition and how important what we’re putting into our bodies on a daily basis affects our mood, our energy levels, our ability to focus our performance here at school,” said Raycroft.
Two other surprise guests were Lynnfield firefighters who came to Huckleberry to talk about bullying, emphasizing to the young listeners about not being a bystander and speaking up when someone does a hurtful, unexpected behavior.
Coming out for the grand finale was Blades the Bruin, who gave out plenty of high fives before leading the kids in a few exercises and playing goalie while audience members tried scoring on him.
“Bringing Blades with us, it’s like going somewhere with Justin Bieber,” Whitesides said. “We hope everybody leaves today being a Bruins fan, but most importantly, they leave and they know to drink more water, exercise more, be good people, and work hard.”
Finishing off the event was a goal from King, causing an eruption of thrilled cheers from the Huckleberry students.
“If we can change one person and move their lives forward, it’s great,” said Whitesides. “Our goal is to do more, but even one person, that’s a win.”
