Start Stacking
Contest new to the state pits elementary schoolers arranging cups into patterns in short order:

"NASHUA - About 75 local chitdren spent Saturday sharpening their hand-eye coordination and having a blast at Ledge Street School's Speed Stacks competition, considered to be the first of its kind in New Hampshire. Students in grades one through six lined up at several tables in the school's packed gymnasium from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., waiting their turn to stack 12 plastic cups into three patterns in the fastest time possible. The school's principal, Andrew Desrosiers, said the competition is great because it does not require athletic skill and any child can participate. 'What's nice is you don't have to be an athlete to compete," he said. "The smallest kid to the biggest kid can play."

Lisa Schneider, a Ledge Street School PTO member, brought the contest to the school last year after visiting family in Colorado and seeing Speed Stacks in a school there. She said it benefits children by improving their motor skills. "It develops ambidexterity and allows them to use both sides of the brain," she said. "It helps children with concentrating in typing, playing sports and playing musical instruments. It allows children to get involved that aren't necessarily athletically inclined." She said most of the participants Saturday were in first and second grades because the interest was not as great from older students. Students from Sunset Heights and Fairgrounds elementary schools in Nashua and pupils from Antrim Elementary School also participated in the event. The competition broke the students into three divisions: first and second grade, third and fourth grade, and fifth and sixth grade. First-, second- and third-place trophies were awarded to the three students with the fastest times in stacking the cups.

Schneider said the students can usually stack the cups in anywhere from 12 to 20 seconds. The competition's $500 cost was sponsored by the Ledge Street PTO and came from funds the group had raised at the beginning of the school year, as well as from each student's $3 registration fee. The school's physical education teacher, Scott Knight, said the competition had been running "very smoothly, arid everyone (was) really happy with it." Michele Reis of Antrim said the contest was great, and added that her daughter, Ashley, 9, was nervous about stacking the cups. "It's her first time doing something like this, but they're all having a good time," she said. Ashley said the hardest part of the competition was stacking with "all the people watching you. Donna Bryan of Lexington, Mass., said she brought her grandson John, 7, of Nashna, to the competition and was enjoying the day. "I just like to see (the kids) compete and not get upset that somebody got 20 seconds and they got 40 seconds," she said. Schneider said she thought the PTO would probably sponsor and hold the Speed Stacks contest again next year, and believes more schools in New Hampshire will introduce the program once they are exposed to it."

www.speedstacks.com

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