Teachers Ann Ruggles-Miller and Jon Fremante spray Lake Placid Elementary School student Connor N. with a hose during LPES’s field day on Tuesday, June 18. (News photo — Sydney Emerson)

LAKE PLACID — Every June, a few days before school lets out for the summer, Lake Placid Elementary School students spend Field Day running, chasing, tug-of-warring and water balloon-battling with their teachers and friends.

This year’s Field Day was Tuesday, June 18, and community groups got involved, too. Part of the day was spent at the Olympic Speed Skating Oval on Main Street and the rest of the day back at LPES.

“(Last year) we had some middle school students that were still in session, so they came down and helped. But, this year, the middle school is done, so we didn’t have that option,” LPES Principal Sonja Franklin said.

LPCSD Community Schools Coordinator Keith Clark took the reins for the morning programming and recruited community volunteers, Franklin said.

“Keith Clark reached out to the Educational Opportunity Fund, and a number of them came down and volunteered and ran some of the stations. We had the police department passing out ice cream here, we had BETA, the Barkeater Trails Alliance, that was doing bike checks, safety checks, so we’ve had a lot of different organizations involved.”

Lake Placid Police Officer Makenzie Hayes hands out ice cream at Lake Placid Elementary School on Tuesday, June 18. (Provided photo — Sonja Franklin)

Dan Cash, outgoing LPCSD school board president and BETA board vice president, helped out with the bike checks at the school. He said having a presence at local schools is beneficial for both students and BETA.

“Not everybody has experience maintaining bikes, so they may let something go that may be a serious issue,” he said. “It helps with BETA’s mission of getting people more active and getting people out on bikes and, it’s a small thing, but it does help drop that barrier to entry of biking if someone can come along and lend a hand and lend some knowledge. Then, maybe, these kids grow up and want to become mountain bikers and join BETA, and the ‘cycle’ repeats itself.”

Field Day is a great way for students and teachers to relax as the school year winds down, Franklin said.

“It’s really just a chance to get silly, have fun and celebrate the end of the year’s here,” she said. “I remember field days when I was in grade school. It’s something that sticks out.”

Out on the field beside LPES, each grade level participated in a different game. It was hot out, with temperatures in the mid-80s, so most of the games involved water: sprayed, sprinkled, lobbed via balloon and dumped.

Brian Delaney of High Peaks Cyclery walks Lake Placid Elementary School kindergarten students through a primer on how to ride a bicycle during the school’s Field Day Tuesday, June 18 at the Olympic Speedskating Oval. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

Fifth-grade teacher Jon Fremante was in charge of the hose during the water relay.

“What’s fun about Field Day is, we have long winters and by the time we get to the good weather in the year, school’s almost over. So, it’s a great opportunity for our kids to truly enjoy the end of the school year with good weather,” he said.

It’s fun for the teachers, too, Fremante said. As he sprayed the students with the hose, he danced along with them to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.”

“It’s a really great time for us to relax and unwind and just enjoy the kids as kids,” he said. “We’re not in the classroom; we’re outside. It’s a really good time for everybody.”

Fifth-grade students Autumn B. and Isabella E. said they’re going to miss celebrating Field Day as they move on to middle school.

“We get to be outside all day. We get to maybe have some water fun,” Isabella said. She added that her favorite activity every year is the water relay.

“It’s good,” Autumn said. “(My favorite game is) probably the tug of war. We always won — the girls always won.”

Fremante said LPES will miss this year’s fifth-grade class as they move up to the Lake Placid Middle-High School.

“They’re great kids,” he said. “As teachers, we really enjoy to watch them grow every year. They come in as young, little fourth-grade kids, and by the time they leave, they’ve grown up so much. We love watching them go off to middle school and know that they’re going to be young, confident kids and go out into the community and make a difference and really make an impact on the world. We’re going to miss them.”