CHATSWORTH : Youngsters Get a Jump on Raising Money

With the unshakable concentration typical of Olympic athletes, Chucky Huenergardt, 7, jumped rope along with his classmates Wednesday at a jump-a-thon to raise money for the American Heart Assn.

“You can’t stop,” Chucky said to himself, getting a little tangled up in his rope, but persisting. “I think I can make it. Come on, come on,” he cheered himself on.

Chucky was among students at Egremont School, a private nonprofit pre-kindergarten to sixth-grade school in Chatsworth, participating in a series of exercises in the school’s Jump for Heart day.

The events for the day included aerobic jump rope, freestyle jump rope and an obstacle course.

Children had been asked to get pledges from parents, friends and neighbors to donate to the American Heart Assn. At last count Wednesday, the school had raised more than $1,000, Principal Sue Fritsche said.

The day’s events hit close to home for the students at Egremont because the father of a sixth-grader, Jennifer Vargas, 11, died in October of heart problems.

The entire sixth-grade class attended Jennifer’s father’s funeral to show their support, Fritsche said.

Jennifer, who helped organize the jump-roping event, said that when the principal proposed the event to her and the student body president, she said she thought that “this sounds like a good idea.”