Students promote the value of fitness during Jump Rope for Heart fund-raising eventForget “Cinderella dressed in yella, went upstairs to kiss a fella.”

John Jacob Astor Elementary School students were rockin’ out to pop tunes and whirling ropes like fitness trainers Friday during Jump Rope for Heart, the American Heart Association event that promotes the value of physical activity and raises money for heart disease research.

This is the eighth year P.E. teacher Brian Babbitt has coordinated Jump Rope for Heart. Last year, students raised $3,400. This year they’re aiming for $4,000, and from a cursory glance at the donation envelopes, it looks like they’ll meet that goal, Babbitt said.

But fund-raising wasn’t Babbitt’s primary concern. All the school’s students, no matter how much or how little money they collected, were able to participate – about 420 first-, second- and third-graders in all.

As the music pounded away, the kids stood in lines of five and rotated in the center for 45 seconds of activity.

“I love it,” said 8-year-old Miranda Dietrichs, who started jumping rope when she was 4. “It’s good exercise. It’s easy to jump and sort of hard to put it around. Sometimes you get tangled in it.”

Courtney Holmes, 7, learned how to jump rope from her sister. “It’s easy,” she said. “You just have to jump.”

But Nikolis McMackin, 8, admitted jumping rope can be pretty tiring.

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Ashley Cassel, 8, smiles as she takes her turn jump roping.”You have to do so many,” he said, before demonstrating his technique. Instead of hopping in place, he took off at a diagonal across the gym, running and swinging the rope under his feet at the same time.

Even though Babbitt has been incorporating jumping rope as part of his P.E. curriculum, and has been teaching students basic jumping techniques as well as how to jump rope when others are doing the swinging, not every child is into the sport.

Alia Menetrey, 7, said jumping rope is really hard for her.

“I just stand in the back of the line and let other people cut,” she said.

Bailey Stevens, 8, used a different method.

“I’m really horrible at regular jump roping,” she said. “But I’m really good at imaginary jump roping.”

To add a little more excitement to the event, Babbitt and Cory Hissner, a senior at Astoria High School who helped with organization as part of his senior project, drew names for door prizes such as plastic spiders, giant checkers, marbles, a Nerf-like football, a set of paints, a wooden snake and other Deals Only items.

Babbitt said he is always reminding his students to be active – not just for Jump Rope For Heart. When kids watch TV, their homework is to pick an exercise and do it during the commercials.

He also tries to impart how important exercise is to good heath at a time when more than 9 million children are overweight and 36 percent get no exercise, according to the American Heart Association.

As the students left the gym, breathing hard after the exercise, Babbitt was all smiles.

“I’m so happy with the kids’ ability,” he said.