Students at William Miller Memorial School in Napakiak spent the last week learning how to play badminton from Badminton Goes Viral – a national initiative to get more children interested in the sport.
Badminton Goes Viral is a nonprofit organization focused on educating youth about badminton.
“Nobody [at lunchtime] wanted to pick up a basketball, or a volleyball or play duck-duck-goose. It was all badminton,” said Principal Sally Benedict.
Benedict said the program was originally supposed to launch in Napakiak in 2020, but COVID caused delays. She said it wasn’t long before students were picking up rackets and hitting shuttlecocks around the gymnasium.
“They got the rackets in the hands of our little kindergarteners. They gave them balloons to get started with. It was so cute,” Benedict said.
Around 87 students in grades K-12 took part in the program in Napakiak, Benedict said. The program was offered at no cost to the school.
Badminton Goes Viral instructors also visited schools in Toksook Bay, Napaskiak, Bethel and Kwethluk.
Benedict hopes that other schools in the Lower Kuskokwim School District that have gone through the program can eventually have some sort of competition in the future.