MIDDLEBURG – Coppergate Elementary students excitedly race from cone to cone on the school’s massive but rather plain playground with Jacksonville Jaguars running back Denard Robinson and mascot Jaxson De Ville.

Students had a lot to celebrate Tuesday after weeks of meeting exercise and healthy eating challenges that qualified the school to receive a $10,000 grant from Fuel Up to Play 60.

Even after the star-inspired festivities ended, the students will likely still be celebrating because the school will use the grant to buy new playground equipment, improve the school’s garden and send students home with much needed nutritious meals.

The projects, developed by the students, will help address the school’s less fortunate who don’t receive financial assistance through federal Title 1 funding, despite the school’s 60 percent free and reduced lunch rate.

“Finances are just hard to come by, you just have to fall right into this certain spot, and this will definitely help, this is a lot of money,” said Traci Conroy, physical education coach.

Fuel Up to Play 60 aims to inspire children to achieve at least 60 minutes of exercise a day as well as eat nutrient-rich foods as part of daily challenges. The program receives funding from the National Football League and the National Dairy Council.

Although Coppergate has won smaller grants from the program in the past that allowed the school to plant a garden in 2014, the funds from this grant will allow the faculty to spread out the money more.

New playground equipment, benches and a place with shade is near the top of the list devised by students and written into the grant. Next to that sits the need to send less-fortunate students home with food. Conroy said the school wants to allocate a portion of the money towards weekend backpacks and coolers to stock with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Conroy also hopes the money will spread far enough to revamp the school’s aging garden and start a summer program to teach children how to cook healthy meals.

“Earlier this year my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and she had a mastectomy and she wasn’t able to cook for many weeks after that, so it would have been just a big help for me and my brother and dad for us to be able to cook a meal to eat,” said Layla Brodbeck, a sixth grader.

After students completed the nutrition and exercise requirements to qualify for this year’s grant, dubbed the “Defend Your Turf Challenge,” the school created a video explaining to judges why they needed the grant. The video featured students who shared stories of how their lives would be impacted.

“Coopergate did a really awesome job of really explaining the need and why they need this for their school and really trying to increase the health and wellness of their students,” said Lori Nelson, nutrition manager Dairy Council of Florida, who funds the grant locally.

Conroy said a day of playing with a professional football player on their playground would undoubtedly stick with them for years. Likewise, she hopes the equipment the school can buy with the grant money will stick around for a while.

“We’re going to try and use it for things that will stay at Coppergate for years,” Conroy said.