Well, Well, Well

I sat in my principal's office, not because I had been bad, but because I was helping out. I was busily counting the take from our parents' group's weekly snack sale. In a middle to low income neighborhood, they managed to rake in more than one hundred and sixty-five dollars in less than an hour of pushing their now traditional menu: Nachos and ice cream cones. As I sat there, flattening out the crumpled one dollar bills and stacking up the bits of loose change into meaningful amounts to be transferred into rolls, I considered one of my other roles at the school: Wellness Champion.
Now, before you go thinking that I have a grandiose opinion of myself, or that I am somehow in charge of making up titles for the little things I do, let me assure you that our school district went looking with a job description in hand for willing volunteers to become their school's (fanfare here)  Wellness Champion. It said that right there on the application. It's how they call us to meetings and send us e-mail updates.
Alas, no capes or utility belts were issued with this title. We did not receive and super powers. We were charged with the task of getting the health of our children back under control. If you can imagine that one person could be in charge of keeping all those cupcakes and pizza and Takis out of our kids' bellies and pointing them toward all the broccoli and sliced fruit they can stand, that's kind of what they had in mind. The good news was that I got to share this job with another teacher at my school, and early on, she took the lead. She organized a staff exercise program. She put up a bulletin board with pictures of vegetables and fruits that are every bit as yummy as gummi worms. She went to meetings and brought back the good news. I stayed at the school and ran the PE program.
Now she's off on maternity leave. She's going to be instructing her new generation on the healthy habits that can last a lifetime. I'm left here to battle the hot chips and fistfuls of Now & Laters. I'm trying to educate without passing judgement. I'm trying to make our school a healthy haven. I'm counting money from our parents' group sale of ice cream and nachos. Maybe a cape would help.