“Jump, jump, jump, jump! Good job!,” Annibell Murphy, a sixth grader at Bush Hill Elementary School in Alexandria, says to her partner, Ariella KC, as they hold onto each other and practice a one-footed hop towards a finish line.

Ariella is one of roughly 60 student athletes from Bush Hill preparing for the Little Feet Meet, a Special Olympics program modeled after a school track meet, happening May 17 at Meridian High School in Falls Church City. Annibell is one of 70 general education students at Bush Hill volunteering their time as partners to the competing athletes.

“I got selected for this,” Annibell says, adding she participated in the program last year as well when she was in fifth grade, also supporting a student with disabilities as they trained and competed in the Little Feet Meet. “It's really fun in my opinion. You’re getting to know other kids at our school. Ariella likes to run, so I get a lot of exercise working with her. She is fun to be around, so joyful, always smiling!”

Bush Hill has participated in Little Feet Meet for at least six years, Principal Mary Duffy says. On May 17, students and their partners from several Northern Virginia schools will move from station to station, competing in running events — sometimes with general education students pushing students with disabilities who have difficulty walking in a stroller— as well long jump, softball throw, and other activities.

The students have been meeting twice a week during the school day to practice since March, Teacher Lydia Peters says. On Mondays and Thursdays in 30-minute sessions, they practice running, walking, and tag to get the teammates comfortable working together and moving their bodies. To prepare for the softball throw, they practice all different sorts of throwing, first using larger objects like basketballs, then they play cornhole, and more.

Eligible student athletes are enrolled in preschool to sixth grade and receive special education services, usually in self-contained supportive settings for academics separate from their general education peers. The two groups of students often combine for specials like art and music as well as lunch and recess.

The general education student partners are selected after completing an application that describes their interest in participating, if they have any experience working with the special education student population, and what qualities they possess that they believe would make them a good partner. A teacher's reference and parental permission are also required.

Bush Hill, where roughly 70 students in the nearly 700-student school are enrolled in self-contained special education programs, became involved in the program when staff members noticed some fifth and sixth graders had started eating lunch with peers in the school’s program for students with intellectual disabilities, Duffy says.

“We noticed they had really bonded together, and we were looking for other ways to continue and build on that relationship. It started small — 15 to 20 athletes and 20 to 30 partners — and now we have more than double that number of participants,” she says.

“We’ve continued the program because we value the relationships that students have made,” Duffy says. “I think that we have definitely seen a greater understanding of students with disabilities, and our general education population has learned to do things like wait for another student to respond or answer questions or interact with students on communication devices.”

Sixth grader Natalie Desta says she participates as a partner because “this makes me feel happy.”

“I know I’m helping other students in my school,” Natalie says, introducing two athletes, Josh Trujillo Alvarez and Muhammad Hashaam, both of whom she’s known for a while. “Josh and Hashaam have been in my classroom before, both are always really nice — Hashaam likes following the rules and is really kind, Josh is more silly but also very kind.”

Josh flashes a thumbs-up sign in agreement.

Another sixth grader, Adam Elbekri, is racing around the school’s blacktop pushing his partner, student athlete Nathaly Diaz, in preparation for the meet.

“At the meet, there will be a race around a stadium, we’ll have our own lane, and I’ll be pushing her stroller,” Adam says. “ I have to be fast but also remember to be safe, in order to keep Nathaly safe. Nathaly helps me by leaning forward sometimes, showing me she wants me to go even faster.”

Adam is another student in his second year of a supporting partner role. “I knew it was something I wanted to do when I was younger and saw older students here participating,” he said. “You feel happy to know you’re helping out at school”

Lydia Peters, a multiple disabilities teacher who oversees the program, says Little Feet Meet and a unified school basketball team — in which students with disabilities and general education students compete alongside each other representing Bush Hill each year — have become a school-wide source of pride.

“There has been a real growth of leadership in our entire school community, as well as an increased sense of belonging for everyone,” Peters said. “We have families come to the basketball game that don’t even have children on the team, and quite a few parents of students who will come out to cheer us at this meet too.”

“It is definitely something our entire community has embraced, a chance for people to come together and share what makes us unique.”

Read more about the Little Feet Meet program.