When H.D. Stafford PE teacher Djiba Camara asked his students do to push ups every day — as many as they could, for at least a week — the entire school jumped in to push up.
By May 5, the entire school population of Grade 6, 7 and 8 students had already collectively done more than 50,000 push ups in nine days. The Grade 6s took the task very seriously, with one class doing 10,000 push ups in three days.
The initiative by Camara was to encourage kids to be active and healthy.
At first they were 'super sore' but by day 5, they were doing push ups with ease, they said.
"This has been great for giving the students a real sense of community. Physical fitness is a real passion of Djiba's. They love this guy," said principal Shawn Davids.
Camara has been on leave battling cancer. He is a favorite teacher and the students gave the push up challenge extra effort to honour him.
Davids has offered to supply pizza for the dedicated students.
One Grade 6 class accomplished 32,000 push ups in nine days, while another, Div 15, did 10,000 in three days. While they didn't break any records, they came pretty close.