Red Sneaker Day Spotlight: Teaching Teal In Red Sneakers
By Red Sneaker Ambassador Noelle Nelson
Teaching people why we wear teal and red for food allergy awareness is the perfect way to celebrate food allergy awareness month! For food allergy awareness month, I hosted two food allergy awareness and education days to teach high school students about food allergies. Here is what I did:
The first day was focused on educating my peers about food allergies. In 45 minutes, one of the Best Buddies Wear Teal & Red camp leaders and I taught students about food allergies using modified activities from my Teach Teal: Food Allergy Awareness Curriculum https://teachtealfoodallergyawareness.weebly.com. I created my Teach Teal Curriculum in 10th grade to teach kids about food allergies. Since I was teaching an entire high school, I modified the activities to engage my audience. After introducing what food allergies are, we had students compete for spirit points in a “Food Allergy Game Show.” Composed of true or false, fill-in-the-blank, and multiple choice questions, students learned about food allergies in a fun way! Afterwards, they watched short Instagram reels from @breakingoutblog and @theallergicgirl_ to learn how to administer an EpiPen or Auvi Q. Then, we practiced reading ingredient labels, in another spirit point competition. Finally, students received Top 9 Free lollipops after writing on a teal post-it one thing they have learned about food allergies!
Next, was the Red Sneakers Day! In order to come in non-uniform teal, red, and red sneakers, students paid a dollar with all proceeds going to Red Sneakers for Oakley. We raised $219.08! It was awesome to see students in their teal, red, and red sneakers. The students also received lots of goodies from Red Sneakers for Oakley such as keychains, pens, notecards, and bracelets. The keychains were a huge hit! One student from each class was awarded a Red Sneakers for Oakley T-Shirt for wearing the most teal, red, and red sneakers! A raffle also awarded one student with converse red sneakers!
I’m so glad I was able to bring food allergy awareness to my high school for the second year in a row! Thank you Red Sneakers for Oakley for providing goodies to make the day even more amazing. Check out @teachteal for all the activities I led to celebrate food allergy awareness month. This includes teaching my Teach Teal curriculum to a classroom of fourth graders during food allergy awareness week!
