Greater Clark begins Fitness Calendar Challenge

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• This Greater Clark County Schools contest consists of fitness homework, a recipe of the month, youth development topics and social responsibility activities

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February 5, 2012

The top school wins a healthy field trip

By JEROD CLAPP Jerod.Clapp@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Sun Feb 05, 2012, 04:29 PM EST

JEFFERSONVILLE — Push-ups, sit-ups, running and crunches are part of their regimen for this month, but they’re keeping their eye on the prize.

Staying fit is nice, but they’re after the field trip.

Students in Greater Clark County Schools begin their YMCA Fitness Calendar Challenge this week. Each school will send students home with calendars filled out with exercise routines, snack recipes and ideas for learning about healthy habits.

Travis Haire, assistant superintendent, said after the contest ends April 28, the school with the most points added up will get to take a health-related field trip.

“It’s trying to promote students at an early age to engage in different types of healthy activities as well as healthy food choices,” Haire said. “Instead of going to get a bag of potato chips, they can get some celery or fruit.”

Students can get points for doing exercises, but also for trying a recipe and looking up information on healthy habits. Students can also get bonus points for getting their parents involved.

Teresa Stengel, health services coordinator, said if other family members get involved with students, children might be more likely to continue with exercise routines and watching their diets.

“I think the more the parents are involved and the school staff are involved, the more excited the kids will be about the challenge,” Stengel said. “If you look at the overall wellness of our community now, it talks about obesity being such a big issue, and that goes with parents, too.”

Last year, the district gave students pedometers to count how many steps they took in a day and used those numbers for the competition. At the end of the school year, the winners got to spend part of the day at the Jeffersonville Aquatic Center.

Stengel said issues with breaking pedometers and troubles with students leaving them at home, filling out a calendar of exercise routines was a little more simple. But she also said the competition won’t just take place against the schools. To encourage students to keep up the routines, classes within schools may compete for small prizes.

“Some of our schools will compete with the different classes,” Stengel said. “Sometimes, it would just [be] an announcement on who won for the week or award stickers, different incentives to keep everything exciting.”

Haire said the wellness initiative in the corporation goes farther than this program — such as offering healthier lunches and changing how students are rewarded — but students seem to enjoy participating in the contest.

“Instead of getting a pizza party, maybe there’s a healthier way to reward kids,” Haire said. “Maybe we take them on some kind of healthy field trip, bring in a Jazzercise instructor, other types of awards other than just stopping for 20 minutes and eating pizza.”

Haire said a final prize hasn’t been determined for this year’s program, but he said it will give students the opportunity to have fun while getting some exercise.

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