Marley Elementary and Marley Glen Students Participate in Invitational

The first Marley Invitational took place Friday in the shared fields of and .

Extending far beyond shared parking lots and sports fields, the collaborative effort between the two schools is changing the lives of students, teachers, parents and community members alike, teachers said.

The students at Marley Glen, an Anne Arundel County special education school, are mainstreamed with Marley Elementary students throughout the week for physical education classes, teachers said.

“We've been working all year to plan this,” said , physical education teacher at Marley Glen. “We wanted to celebrate the collaborative partnership between our two schools and bring the students together for a fun event that also would encourage them to live a fit lifestyle.”

The details of the event were put together by both Marcus and Marley Elementary physical education teacher .

The morning began with opening ceremonies and continued with the students alternating between eight activity stations. 

“They'll be doing things like tennis, relay races, basketball and soccer,” Mueller said. “There's also a station where they will make friendship bracelets and give them to each other. That's what this day is really about—celebrating the friendships the students have made through this collaboration.”

Teachers and parents served as volunteers for the event, along with football players from (GBHS), U.S. Coast Guard members and employees from Kohl's.

“The boys from Glen Burnie's football team mentor students at Marley Elementary,” Mueller said. “We asked them if they'd like to help out with the event today and were thrilled that they wanted to come and work with the students.”

GBHS football coach Kevin Powell attended the event with his players. 

“These boys were hand-selected to participate in the program today,” Powell said. “They have character, think beyond themselves and enjoy making these kids smile.  These guys even stayed after school to make up class time so they could be here today. They really care about working with these kids.”

Glen Burnie junior Eric Ferrell was in charge of running the softball station.

“It's a lot of fun to help the kids do sporting events and to teach them the importance of being fit,” Ferrell said.

Nichole Kirby was on hand to help her son Gavin, a second-grader at Marley Glen.  Kirby's eyes filled with tears as she explained the importance of the program.

“It's so meaningful to see these kids get exposure to children with special needs,” Kirby said. “All of the Marley Elementary students and the boys from Glen Burnie High are so accepting and wonderful. This is a great program.”

One of the favorite stations for the students was the friendship bracelet activity, where students decorated slap bracelets with markers and made tokens of friendship for one another. 

“We wanted this event to feature simple stations with activities that would get the kids engaged in being fit and spending time outside," Mueller said.

Fifth-grader Taylor Snyder was hard at work on a bracelet for her friend, Andrew Acton. Andrew, a fifth grader at Marley Glen, also was participating, making a bracelet to exchange with Snyder.

“There are a lot of reasons I'm happy to have Andrew as my friend,” Taylor said. “I wouldn't have met him without this program and he is a good friend to me.”

 See a from the day's events.