{"id":2586,"date":"2025-08-12T01:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T01:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/?p=2586"},"modified":"2025-08-11T21:31:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T21:31:18","slug":"huddlup-expanding-at-rocori-high-school-launching-30000-matching-grant-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/2025\/08\/12\/huddlup-expanding-at-rocori-high-school-launching-30000-matching-grant-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"HuddlUp Expanding at ROCORI High School, Launching $30,000 Matching Grant Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

The HuddlUp program launched at ROCORI Elementary in 2021 to improve student mental health outcomes. Now in its fifth year, the program is expanding to include high school students as \u201cnear-peer\u201d mentors.<\/p>\n

Early outcomes from classrooms that use the HuddlUp curriculum and activities have been promising, with students reporting improved peer relationships, lower anxiety, and better stress management skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelationships are the foundation of mental health,\u201d said Jerry Sparby, HuddlUp founder and retired ROCORI Elementary principal. \u201cWe can\u2019t expect good academic performance if we don\u2019t support students\u2019 mental wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sparby and the HuddlUp team believe high school students will also benefit from the program, but from a different angle.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeens want to be part of something,\u201d said Jim Meyer, HuddlUp coach and retired ROCORI teacher, adding, \u201cthey want to be seen and to be appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Involving high school students as \u201cnear-peer\u201d mentors who assist HuddlUp coaches in elementary classrooms brings another level of positive impact, according to Meyer.<\/p>\n

This component of the HuddlUp program was piloted last year to huge success. Groups of high school students mentored younger peers with Huddlup\u2019s play-based activities, modeling friendship building, problem-solving, and teamwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t teach better mental health,\u201d said Brad Bauer, ROCORI teacher, \u201cYou improve mental health through active engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n

HuddlUp gets students out of their seats, away from screens, and involved in social play. By all measures, the program is accomplishing what it set out to do\u2014improve student mental health and wellbeing. And now high school students are part of the solution.<\/p>\n

Feedback from last year\u2019s cohort of high school students was overwhelmingly positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely love working with HuddlUp because I feel like I get to change kids\u2019 lives one day at a time,\u201d said ROCORI mentor Norah H. \u201cIt brings me so much joy to be with the children and feel like I\u2019m making a difference for someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community members can also make a difference for students at ROCORI School District by helping reach a $30,000 matching grant challenge.<\/p>\n

Local organizations that have backed the program include the ROCORI Area Foundation, Stearns County Health Department, and the Lions Clubs in Rockville, Richmond, and Cold Spring and the Bernick\u2019s Foundation.<\/p>\n

A generous anonymous donor has committed a $30,000 matching grant to support the expansion of HuddlUp at ROCORI School District. Individuals can help meet this match by visiting Huddlup.org or sending a gift to P.O. Box 1042, St. Cloud, MN 56302 with \u201cROCORI Matching Grant\u201d in the memo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

HuddlUp Summer Team: Jim Meyer, Andy Marod, Brian Athman, Logan Weis, Brad Bauer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The HuddlUp program launched at ROCORI Elementary in 2021 to improve student mental health outcomes. Now in its fifth year, the program is expanding to include high school students as \u201cnear-peer\u201d mentors. Early outcomes from classrooms that use the HuddlUp curriculum and activities have been promising, with students reporting improved peer relationships, lower anxiety, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/HuddlUp-Summer-Team-22025.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2588,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2586\/revisions\/2588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csrecord.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}