Principal 'Army-Crawls' Basketball Court to Fulfill Challenge

Blair Bueckman, the principal of Our Savior Lutheran School in Fenton, did a slow crawl around the perimeter of the school's basketball court, all to settle a challenge she made to students.

The school had been participating in a month-long program called B.A.S.I.C. Training. B.A.S.I.C stands for Brothers and Sisters in Christ. A variety of events were held throughout March, generally around a military theme. Part of the program included a shoe collection drive, in which students collected shoes for the Shoeman Water Projects, which uses new and used donated shoes to provide water wells and water purification systems in Kenya.

Bueckman challenged to students to make the shoe drive a success, vowing to Army-crawl around the gym if they collected enough shoes to circle the basketball court. The students did just that, amassing 337 pairs of shoes during the drive.

Thursday was payoff day as Bueckman, sporting knee and elbow pads and colorful toe socks, crawled her way around the basketball court, to the cheers and encouragement of the Our Savior students and staff.

"It really wasn't too bad," she said. "Much easier than the shag rug I practiced on last night."

Bueckman made the round trip mostly effortlessly, but said she had slightly sore ribs and a bit of rug burn.

George "The Shoeman" Hutchings was on hand for the event, and even crawled a short distance with Bueckman, but, after giving her a "high five," he ended his crawl and let the principal go the distance.