Jake Arrieta Will Present $5K Check to Olympia Fields School

OLYMPIA FIELDS, IL - Chicago Cubs ace pitcher and reigning National League Cy Young award winner Jake Arrieta will visit an Olympia Fields elementary school on Tuesday.

Arrieta will present Arcadia Elementary School with a $5,000 check as the winner of the Illinois “Game Plan for Success” contest, which recognizes schools that encourage students to work hard and practice their skills by holding them to high expectations, according to a news release.

The event is not open to the public.

Arcadia was named the 2016 winner of the contest in Illinois. Edward “Duke” Ellington School and Frazier International Magnet School, both in Chicago, were named runner-ups.

“You can’t be successful if you don’t build teams,” Arcadia Principal Patricia Ransford said, noting that community is “a way of life” at Arcadia.

According to Jim Cowen, Game Plan for Success project director, Arcadia “truly exemplifies all four tenets of the Game Plan for Success.”

“The students, teachers, and staff at are aiming high, listening to teachers, practicing their skills, and testing themselves. Arcadia implements their curriculum with rigor and fidelity – and is committed to statewide tests as one important measure of student performance.”