Kids today often get the admonishment from their parents to “stop looking at your phone,” which often falls upon deaf ears.

The message might be better heard, however, when it comes from their own peers.

Anna Walker, a soon-to-be fourth-grader at Westside Elementary who just turned 9 in May, is trying to get that message across.

“I would spend a lot of my day under my covers with my phone as the only light,” she said. “But I watched a video of a man who had built a house for a homeless person and it got me thinking of something I could do to help my community.”

Walker went on to watch a video that sparked her idea to get off her phone and back to enjoying the outdoors, and spreading the word.

And so the Anna Walker Field Day Project was born, sort of.

“I told my dad the idea and was excited when he said yes to it, but he didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off,” she said. “But I sent an email to Mr. (Colby) Stenerson at the Rec District and within a day he wrote back and said they would help.”

From there it was on to deciding the activities for the day and garnering help.

“We’re going to have five stations, and it’s for kids from age 1 and up,” Walker said. “There will be a station for basketball, soccer, badminton, spud and a baby station that will be supervised for the kids too young to play at the others.”

The event will be held at Westside, centered around the tennis courts, on Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“It’s funny because I’m not really an organized person, and at first I was just excited that it was going to happen, but then I realized how much I had to prepare,” Walker said. “I’m going to be teaching at the soccer station, so I have to prepare my lesson plan for that, and I’ll also be walking around making sure everything is running smoothly. It’s hard, but I want people to have fun, get some exercise, maybe sweat a little, and maybe the next day they’ll want to get back out for themselves. I just want to inspire people, like I was inspired by that video.”