PCHS JROTC instructor is raising funds to build it.
Following on the Make America Healthy Again movement, in July, the U.S. government advocated to “Make America Fit Again” to reverse the decline in children’s health. One way it has done so is by bringing back the presidential fitness test.
Well before the federal government began this initiative, First Sergeant Aarik Karlson, US Army (RET), Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) Instructor at Plant City High School (PCHS), began a project to construct an obstacle course on school campus. The artilleryman served for 30 years in the Army National Guard, based in Lakeland. His active duty was in Korea and Germany, and he deployed to Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait. Karlson retired in 2022 and continued to serve as a JROTC instructor since then.
“When I was 18, 19 years old, I had no clue about what I wanted to do,” Karlson said. “So, just like I tell the kids here, the military is a good start to figure it out. I had no intention of staying in that long, but one thing led to another. Thirty years later, it came to the point about being there to develop boys and girls into young men and women; showing them how to properly do things, showing them that people care about them, people want to help them. Once I became a sergeant, that was very clear to me. That was what I really like to do, to develop individuals. That’s why, when I decided to retire, I gravitated towards JROTC because, even though my career was coming to an end in the military, I wasn’t done giving back. What better way than to come into a high school and further develop these young men and women, and show them a path, whether that be if they want to go to college, if they want to go into the military, if they want to go into trade schools, or if they just want to go out into the workforce? They don’t think that they have a way, and that is not the case. It is a perfect opportunity for us to show them and guide them, and get them on the right path.”
“It’s definitely taught me a lot about discipline,” Jamie Fredette, the Cadet Command Sergeant Major, said about the JROTC program. “It has taught me about my character; who I am as a person. It has brought me a lot of stability in my life. It’s a huge family. We all have each other’s backs.”
PCHS’s JROTC has a physical fitness team, called a Raider Team, but it is complete coincidence that the school mascot is the raiders. All of the JROTC physical fitness teams are called Raider Teams. The Raider Team students compete against other schools on obstacle courses. Each school fields teams of 10 students who have to work together in the competitions. Since PCHS doesn’t have an obstacle course, their JROTC students don’t have a chance to regularly work through obstacles together or host other schools for Raider Team competitions. With an obstacle course in place, competitions would “Bring schools into Plant City to show them what this great town is all about,” Karlson said. “On the other side of it, obstacle courses teach kids so much. Obviously, we have obstacles in life. You might have a kid that comes up to a six-foot wall and he or she says, ‘There’s no way I can get over that.’ Yes, maybe not by yourself, but with the people that are surrounding you, in this case, the team they can help you over that.” Obstacle courses also teach students dexterity, balance, how to move things, how to troubleshoot, critical thinking, and getting over the fear of obstacles.
The course will be constructed with aluminum so it won’t deteriorate as wood does. It will be durable, and last for decades. Among the features will be a slanted wall with a rope feature, flat walls from four feet to 10 feet high, a swing/stop/jump obstacle, a hand-over-hand hanging climb, and a low crawl. There are 125 students in the JROTC program at PCHS. However, use of the course won’t be limited to JROTC. The rest of the school will be free to use it for physical education classes, team practices, or school organization team building. “It is a great way for kids to overcome obstacles together and build that family,” Karlson said. “I think it is an amazing opportunity for them. This shows them just because you have never done something before, you can do it. It just takes practice. You may not be successful the first time, but the more you practice something, the better off you are going to be.”
An obstacle course isn’t the sort of thing that HCPS funds. The cost of the course is $130,000, and the money will need to be raised from private sources. Donations can be made through the PCHS Raider Champions Foundation. The foundation is a non-profit organization, so gifts are tax deductible. So far, the community has given $50,000. If an individual or a company wants to be a sole or primary sponsor of an obstacle, the JROTC can name that obstacle after the donor and install sponsorship signs. Also, sponsor banners will be attached to a fence that runs along the area where the course will be built.
For more information about the obstacle course project, contact:
JROTC Army Instructor Aarik Karlson
Aarik.karlson@hcps.net
O: 813-757-9370 ext. 267
C: 813-404-6456
