Kara Lubin

Kara Lubin

  • Joined: April 27, 2023
  • Articles: 80

Vail Ranch is Running Long and Strong!

  “100 Mile Club over time has grown and created a positive, exciting culture at Vail Ranch Middle School over the course of nine years! Spotting your 100 Mile Club shirt in Big Bear has built a wonderful running program for all students at Vail Ranch and will continue for many years to come. Presently we have 370 100 Mile Club members, 238 Cross Country runners, and 250 have signed up for our Tu/Fr morning run group this year.  Great Oak High School has benefited with five State Cross Country Championships and countless college scholarship athletes that came from Vail Ranch. Vail Ranch can not thank you and your wonderful staff enough! This program works in so many ways for young students…”  – Steve White, 100 Mile Club® Head Coach, VRMS According to White (and numerous online reports), Vail Ranch is ranked as the #1 Middle School XC team in California. Their corresponding High School, Great Oak HS, is ranked the #1 High School Team (boys and girls) in the State, and the #1 girls team in the NATION! The #1 girl runner, Destiny Collins, and 8 of the top 10 girls at Great Oak are from Vail Ranch and are products of their incredible and inclusive 100 Mile Club led by Coach White! On top of the notable victories, through his daily lessons and 100 Mile Club sessions, Coach White encourages the learning and practicing of the essential life skills found in Coach John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. The following story illustrates the beauty and graciousness of two of Coach White’s students. Countless life skills are displayed here, including poise, confidence, team spirit, honesty, integrity, sincerity, friendship. The list goes on and on.  This story is told to Coach White through the eyes of a very proud and inspired proud father… (We edited […]

Success Spotlight: Adams Elementary School

Guest post by Julie Churchman, Adams Head Coach and Resident Rockstar! Adams Elementary School in Santa Barbara, CA celebrated the end of another school year running in the 100 Mile Club®. Since September 1st through 6th graders have been keeping track of laps run before school, during recess, with their class, and in the RAP program. Participating in the 100 Mile Club gives the students the opportunity to walk, jog, skip or run around the school course and work towards 25,50,75, and 100 mile rewards. During this school year, 293 students surpassed their 25-mile goal earning a 100 Mile Club tee shirt. One hundred ten (110) students reached their 50-mile goal earning a gold pencil. Fifty students surpassed their 75-mile goal earning a 100mile club bracelet. And 11 students reached the 100-mile mark with 5 of those students running more than 150 miles and Christy Guerrero, a very determined 4th grader, running 206 miles! They were presented with their 100 Mile Club 2015 medals this morning at our morning school assembly. We had a grade level “Race Across America” competition and the second grade won by logging 4141 miles which took them to Washington DC and back to Flagstaff, Arizona! Third grade came in 2nd place logging 3515 miles and making it to DC and back to Oklahoma City. The fifth grade made it to our nation’s capital, but 3036 miles got them back to Memphis, Tennessee. Fourth grade made it to Columbus, Ohio running 2064 miles. First grade ran 1825 miles getting as far as Indianapolis, and sixth grade logged 1435 miles getting as far as Kansas City, Missouri. In total, Adams Elementary School students ran over 16,000 miles, which is 3000 more miles than last year. Next year we are going to have a race around the world, […]

So..What IS a “Get-It” Award, Anyway? And WHO gets it this time?

A district administrator emailed me the other day and was so happy that a few of her teachers had received a “Get-It” Award from us…she asked about all sorts of things: what the criteria was, how often we give them, and a bunch of other stuff. My reply was less than technical but somehow accurate and I thought I’d share it with you before we give out the next 3 “Get-Its”… So how do you explain the Get It Award? The easiest way to explain it is that it’s the combination of a School/Coach Spotlight and a Caught Being Good Award. Hopefully this blog can help a little. We do them as often as we can and whenever we see something awesome or feel like a school just really understands the program and what we’re trying to do. Basically, this award goes to people who are fabulous, who are making the 100 Mile Club work no matter what, who are inspiring their kids to become everything they can be. We give these awards to the crème de la crème of 100 Mile Club® coaches, schools, advocates, or districts. If you try and overthink the Get It Award, it almost cheapens it. In short, it’s a huge honor. Just know that if you get one, we think you’re pretty cool. Our next Get-It is well-earned, as always: Nicole Zundel from Freedom Crest Elementary in Menifee, CA. Nicole jumped in with both feet and eyes wide open! She has done quite a few awesome things this year. Just to name a few… Nicole built a very cool stand-alone website for all of her school’s 100 Mile Club® needs…and she did it through Shutterfly, which is so creative and unique. Check it out right here. When our calendar crashed on the 100 Mile Club website, […]

St. Vrain Valley GETS IT!

Receiving a grant to implement the 100 Mile Club, and actually implementing the 100 Mile Club in a totally awesome way can sometimes be two different things. In this case though, they are truly one and the same. Last fall, The Colorado Health Foundation awarded St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) in Longmont, Colorado, a Physical Activity Grant that is specifically designed to increase the amount of student participation in daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA). We were so honored to have been chosen to be part of this incredible effort. Read more about it here because this article is not really about the grant. It’s about the amazing people who are making magic through this generous and incredible opportunity. The GET-IT Award Recipients this round are some real gems within the SVVSD who truly have taken 100 Mile Club and are “running” with it! (Get it?) Paige Jennings is the awesome Physical Activity Grant Coordinator for SVVSD. She not only does her job but she does it well and she makes it look good! Paige knows and understands the 100 Mile Club as if she’s been at it her whole life. She is not afraid to try new things and ask questions when she needs to. She is the model of an outstanding leader. She is a doer with a “let’s GO!” mentality. Paige never pretends to know more than she does, is not afraid to ask questions, and is a quintessential part of the success of the 100 Mile Club in SVVSD. She is our first GET-IT Award recipient in SVVSD, of course…but then we asked her to nominate 3 more people she believed should receive a Get-It Award, too! The 3 other Get-It Award recipients this month are: Jen Howie at Burlington Elementary School is the epitome of INITIATIVE, ALERTNESS and […]

A Letter from Our Founder

Since the beginning of my adventures as The 100 Mile Club® Founder… I have wished that every child and every school would know about and be given the opportunity to participate in The 100 Mile Club. I have hoped that ALL schools could come together to combat this inactivity epidemic and do something meaningful and HUGE…TOGETHER as one big team. I have dreamt that one day, every child in the country would be able to proudly say that they were part of something that showed the world that anything is possible. That they did something BIG. These wishes, hopes, and dreams are now coming true! This Spring, schools in the United States (and beyond) are going to begin logging one BILLION miles TOGETHER, and guess who is leading the way? The New Balance Foundation and ChildObesity180, in partnership with and inspired by 100 Mile Club®, proudly bring you the New Balance Foundation Billion Mile Race!! Read all about it right here. All we will need are your miles…we will put them in one big crazy, online pile, and we will keep doing that until we reach one BILLION miles. That’s right, one billion. With a B. (It’s just a million miles a thousand times. No big deal, right?) We at 100 Mile Club like big challenges. We like to do the impossible. We love teamwork, and we LOVE our schools! Are you in? Can we count YOUR miles? Stay tuned for more information, but for now, know that we are all in this together and we are going to make history!! Let’s GOOOO! This is going to be fun! Yours Always,       Kara Lubin, Founder & CEO The 100 Mile Club® For more information, or to acyivate your school for the Billion Mile Race, please visit http://www.billionmilerace.org

One Billion Miles? (Yes, that’s billion, with a B) WE CAN make it happen!

ChildObesity180, New Balance Foundation, and 100 Mile Club Collaborate on Initiative to Increase Quality Physical Activity for Children –  New Balance Foundation Pledges $2.55 Million Toward New Initiative (March 3, 2015) BOSTON, MA – ChildObesity180 at Tufts University, The New Balance Foundation, and the 100 Mile Club have announced a new collaboration focused on increasing quality physical activity for children. The New Balance Foundation has pledged $2.55 million in support of this important work. At the core of the collaboration is a nationwide campaign, the New Balance Foundation Billion Mile Race, which will boost physical activity in elementary schools and help lay the foundation for a lifetime of active movement. The New Balance Foundation Billion Mile Race invites America’s students to collectively reach 1 billion miles through participation in school-based walking, jogging, and running clubs. “We are tremendously grateful for the generous support from the New Balance Foundation, and very excited about this collaboration and nationwide initiative,” said Christina D. Economos PhD, vice chair & director of ChildObesity180, New Balance Chair in Childhood Nutrition, and Associate Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. “The New Balance Foundation and 100 Mile Club have been tremendous sponsors for ChildObesity180 and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with them on this new program. The causes of obesity are complex and interconnected; increasing activity levels is one step we can take to help solve this problem. We have high hopes for this initiative.” “The New Balance Foundation is proud to join with ChildObesity180 and the 100 Mile Club in this new effort to get kids moving in schools across America,” said Anne Davis, vice chairman and executive VP of administration, New Balance. “Supporting charitable programs that work toward the betterment of children is central to our […]

Our Next Two “Get-It Awards”: A Bi-Coastal Celebration!

Team Spirit and Action…Loyalty and Resourcefulness. THESE are the qualities of our TWO “Get-It” Awards this month. Our first Get-It Award goes to a school in year two of The 100 Mile Club®, but with a set of first-year coaches! Canyon View Elementary School in Irvine, CA had a good start in 100 Mile Club, but when these moms took over…the sky was the limit!! WOW!! These ladies pulled it all together with the most TEAM SPIRIT we had ever seen. From the day of the kickoff assembly to the way they have integrated playground supervisors and facilitators from the city, they’ve managed to create a dynamite team that is helping ALL kids become successful. The joy, love, and spirit we see at Canyon View…it’s a beautiful thing.  They GET IT! In addition, their decisive ACTION to recognize monthly class efforts on a beautiful webpage and with a perpetual, traveling trophy has made everyone so excited to pull together and make 100 Mile Club AWESOME! Hat’s off to CANYON VIEW ELEMENTARY and Coaches Kim Konte, Michelle Toulmin, and their incredible TEAM of volunteers! You make TEAM SPIRIT and ACTION look gooooood!! Our next Get-It Award takes all the way to Springfield, Massachusetts (where basketball was invented!). Brookings Elementary School is ALSO in year two of 100 Mile Club and coach Joe Trivisonno embodies the truest spirit of Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, specifically the blocks LOYALTY and RESOURCEFULNESS stand way out! The families at Brookings are incredibly dedicated to 100 Mile Club. Arriving every day right on time, they have seen a SHARP decline in tardies and absences since the program began. In addition, the sheer number of parents who show up to walk each day is growing each month. Brookings has truly made 100 Mile Club a family affair! If […]

Planning your own Race Across USA with your Students

If your school is not along the Race Across USA  route, there’s another way you can participate! If your class has 15-30+ students, they could also start “Running Across the USA” as a team leaving January 16, 2015 and plot their miles using our amazing overseas partner, WORLD WALKING. Race Across USA has also partnered with WorldWalking.org to reproduce the EXACT Race Across USA route. After your classroom covers 266 miles (about two weeks), your students will be rewarded with fun geography facts about the State of California. This will continue with every state all the way across the country. How cool is THAT!?! You might even beat the team to Washington DC! If you have questions or are interested in learning more about the Race Across USA,  please click here to message the amazing Race Directors, Sandy and Darren Van Soye from Run-Walk Events. Come on! You’re running anyway…might as well run across the country while you’re at it! WOOHOO!

Miles at sports practice? Private home mileage logs? Not in 100 Mile Club®…

100 Mile Club® is a program developed over 27 years and has specific and clear guidelines and structure. 100 Mile Club does not support the counting of laps/miles completed with parents at home via privately completed mileage logs, tracking apps, during sports practices, etc… 100 Mile Club® is a TEAM at  school. We don’t want to marginalize anyone because they do not have the ability to join an outside sport. We need to keep everyone’s experience and journey as consistent as possible, and we cannot do this if kids are given “free” miles, miles at home, for soccer practice, football, or other sports to which some children have zero access. This is our position after 27 years of experience… OUR MISSION STATEMENT:  The 100 Mile Club® provides the opportunity to run or walk 100 miles at school during a single school year which improves school readiness to learn, creates better education outcomes, building self-esteem and the overall health in the lives of children and others.   The words AT SCHOOL truly help us focus our vision and clearly state that miles completed must be done at school or at local COMMUNITY events where there is equal access for ALL. Ask yourself this: If a child came to your community for a visit, or a sibling from another school was ALSO doing 100 Mile Club®, how would we keep the journey consistent? Would he or she feel connected to 100 Mile Club® or excluded from something you are doing privately at YOUR site? How do we include ALL kids in this nationwide journey to 100 miles? How do we provide structure and maintain consistency of mission, vision, spirit, intention, journey, incentives, team, community, unity? 100 Mile Club® is about taking a journey to 100 miles…TOGETHER. Miles completed are at school or at […]

The “Get-It” Award: Enthusiasm & Team Spirit at SWS!

One of the highest compliments we give at 100 Mile Club® is to simply write or tell a coach or school that they “get it”. Usually the conversation goes something like this: “You’re perfect. You just get it. Can we clone you?”  What more can we say? When you Get It, you understand 100 Mile Club’s mission, vision, and philosophy. You understand the power of what we are doing and the commitment and passion with which it must be done. You understand that you must make mistakes to move forward and think outside the box to make permanent change… You are truly part of the team, the family, the program, the movement. You are part of 100 Mile Club®. You GET IT. For this reason, we now want to recognize schools, districts, and coaches with The “Get It” Award. The 100 Mile Club® utilizes Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success when we talk about (1) being your personal best, (2) working toward goals, and (3) coaching/teaching our kids. Our initial focus with new 100 Mile Club® coaches and kids are the two bottom “cornerstones” of the Pyramid: Hard Work (Industriousness) and Enthusiasm. If you are not working hard and excited about what you are doing, then truly…nothing else can happen. We believe that these two cornerstone blocks are absolutely essential for true success. Without them, the Pyramid of Success would crumble. Our coaches at Swift River School in New Salem, Massachusetts are so much fun and coach with total Enthusiasm. They are Enthusiasm and Hard Work personified. One of my favorite people…SWS Coach Nan Mead. Please note the yellow rubber gloves on Nan’s running shoes to make the most adorable turkey feet ever! __________________________________________________ Head Coach Nancy Mead and the team at Swift River School have made magic happen over the past year. […]