The Caribou Parks and Recreation Department will host the Regional Finals of the Hershey Track and Field Program on Tuesday, June 21 at 10 a.m. at the Caribou High School track facility.
All participants have to qualify in their local communities via a local meet. If your community does not host a Hershey Youth Track and Field Program but you would like to compete in the regionals, contact the Caribou Parks and Recreation office for a registration form and more information. You may also log on to hersheytrackandfield.com for more information.
The Hershey Track and Field Program, founded by Dr. Donald P. Cohen of West Virginia in 1975, was developed to promote physical fitness, participation, friendship and sportsmanship. Now, the program has become the largest youth sports program of its kind in North America. The basic premise that Dr. Cohen developed the program around was to encourage children to run, throw and jump, whether they had a track in their community or not.
To this day, competitors from across North America still compete only in running events including the 50-, 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes and the 800- and 1,600-meter runs as well as the standing long jump and softball throw. USA Olympic competitors such as Monique Henderson and Bershawn Jackson began their track and field successes through participation in the Hershey program where Monique still holds the record for the 13-14 girls 200-meter record with a time of 24.06.
Meets are held in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the 10 provinces and three territories of Canada. State/provincial finalists are eligible for selection to Regional Teams. Region Six is comprised of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
Once the scores from each state and province are tabulated, a regional team is formed for the National Finals. To ensure fair representation of participants from all states, districts, territories and provinces, a minimum of five finalists are selected from each state/province group to be part of the regional team that will attend the North American Final.
The top athletes from the regional meet will move on to the state competition, to be held in Bangor in July. Several Aroostook County youth have even traveled to the National Finals of the program and enjoyed an all-expenses paid trip which includes a day at Hershey Park.
For more information, contact Regional Meet Director Kathy Mazzuchelli at the Caribou Parks and Recreation office at 493-4224.
