Playing in the Sun with ‘Tag, Toss & Run’

We all enjoyed a great afternoon playing lawn games from organic lawn care advocate Paul Tukey’s book, Tag, Toss & Run: 40 Classic Lawn Games. Thank you to everyone who participated in our final Meet the Author Series talk of the semester and Field Day on Tuesday! Starting the afternoon off with his presentation on organic lawn care and Tag, Toss, & Run, Paul enlightened us on the dangers of society’s use of regular lawn care and the much better benefits of using organic lawn care techniques. He reminded us that before people needed their lawns to be perfect, with no weeds and completely green grass, families and their children were playing outside on their lawns without any problems. It wasn’t until a need for the “perfect” lawn that parents began to stop their children from playing outside due to all of the dangerous chemicals from the weed sprays and fertilizers that were being used to grow the “perfect” lawn. Fewer children are now going outside to play, missing out on fun and the exercise that comes with playing outside. Paul challenged and encouraged us to know what is being sprayed on our own lawns, and also to get outside to play more. Emphasizing this challenge, Paul invited us to join him for an afternoon of play out in Centennial Commons where student groups, including NUHOC, Tri Sigma, BGE and the Vietnamese Student Association, as well as those from NU Sport in Society, were hosting lawn games from Tukey’s book. Enjoying the sun, students were able to play games such as Volley Ball, Ladder Toss, Badminton, Molkky, Sepak Takraw and more. Hitting the ball over the net, scoring points in Molkky and tossing a Frisbee around, students and faculty met Paul’s challenge and for an afternoon, got outside to have a fun game-filled day under the sun.