Fuel Your Fire

Students in grades 5-12 packed the Shipley Center gymnasium on Wednesday for Dana Hall’s annual Ship Day, a day of health and wellness programming. This year’s Ship Day focused on the topic of nutrition.

Keynote speaker Amanda Feldman ’12, MS, RD, LDN, a nutrition expert and registered dietician, shared her personal health and wellness journey, going all the way back to her time as a softball player at Dana Hall and in college, and her surprise embrace of running in her early 20s. A running injury that halted her marathon training became a pivotal event for her; after recovering, she went back to school for a master’s in nutrition to not only learn more on the topic but be able to share her knowledge with others.

Feldman share the importance of properly fueling your body for physical activity, as well as the importance of fueling your spirit and finding the things that bring you joy.

“Go out and find what you are passionate about,” she said. “It’s okay if you don’t know what that is right now, but when you do find it, run with it. Try new things. Also allow your passions and interests to shift and change and grow… And if you fail at something the first time, keep working at it.”

After a special lunch, students joined breakout sessions around campus on sports nutrition, mindful eating, food sustainability and meal and snack prep, featuring Kirsten Bohnenberger, MS, RD, LDN; Metrowest Nutrition and Therapy founder Amy Gardner, MS, CEDRD, LDN; Fuel Forward owner Mary Ellen Kelly, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD; and Growing Places Executive Director Ayn Yeagle, MS, RD, LDN.

To close out the day, Varsity Cross Country captains H. Brown ’26 and H. Hill ’25 organized a charity 5K race through campus to benefit Runway for Recovery, a nonprofit that supports families with a caretaker battling breast cancer, which Dana Hall first partnered with during Family Weekend. The students raised more than $1,000 from bib sales and donations, with more than 65 runners and walkers competing in the race.