DECA promotes activity without technology

    The 21st century is an era that has society often times staring at a screen. It's an era that is plagued with an unquenchable desire to use social media as an instrument to simultaneously dramatize and romanticize aspects of our generally mediocre life. Technology is our society’s favorite guilty pleasure. Cashmere High School's DECA program worked to combat this new societal norm of being addicted to our screens.
    Most people sign up and make profiles as these one dimensional caricatures of ourselves. We edit, filter and skew the entirety so that our profiles show only the highlights via Instagram or the funny blooper reel via Snapchat. Apps like Tinder took the phrase ‘plenty of fish in the sea’ and essentially made a digital aquarium for us to survey all options at once. Even texting has become a cop out to avoid eye contact and small talk with that acquaintance passing you in the grocery store aisle.
    Saturday, November 10 at 11 a.m., the Cashmere High School DECA, part of Public Relations called Replug-Recharge invited the surrounding communities to come out to Walla Walla Park for a free 3k and Nature Hunt - a chance to neglect their phones in exchange for being active. The first 80 people to arrive not only got a chance to look up from their screens, but a free shirt as well.
    The event was formed by a trio of girls, Amy Martin, Lauren Mussen and Katie Martin who were students in a Project Management class. The 3k and Nature Hunt was a kickoff campaign for the entire Replug-Recharge project and attracted local awareness to the project.
    "The students felt strongly about the fact that people spent too much time on devices and not enough time outside," said their advisor, Chris Cloakey.
    Martin, Mussen and Martin helped their community members register and passed out light blue shirts to the first 80 participants. The 5k and Nature Hunt both started at Shelter #1 in Walla Walla Park where they were greeted by the enthusiastic students, balloons and free t-shirts. Both Cashmere families and Cashmere High School students and staff gathered at the starting line, with phones tucked away.
    The 3k and Nature Hunt was an opportunity to get face time (instead of FaceTime) with other locals and get a breath of fresh air before the temperatures really drop.