Hopwood to participate in Live It! campaign

Students attending Hopwood Junior High School will be participating in a nationwide campaign called Live It!—a new program encouraging youth to lead healthy, active lifestyles and reach the President’s goal of “a healthier United States.”

The Live It! campaign takes a fun, student-level approach to 1) being physically active on a daily basis and 2) making healthy eating choices at school and home.

Hopwood will be participating in this unique program from Dec. 12 to Dec. 23 and will also be making a presentation to the parents at the Dec. 15 PTSA meeting at 6pm in the HJHS cafeteria.

The Live It! program features two student activities:

– Step With It, which focuses on the health benefits of stepping—a low-impact form of physical activity. The student goal is to record at least 10,000 steps a day, using a personal Stepometer™ measuring device and a list of fun and easy ideas for reaching the goal. All activity, soccer, football, skateboarding, dancing, even walking the family dog count as steps toward the 10,000 a day goal. Since its launch in 2002, Step With It has introduced the importance of physical activity to over a million students and received rave reviews from teachers, parents and students.

– Fit It In, encourages making healthy food choices through daily food tips found on student “Activity Cards.” The cards feature the new USDA “MyPyramid” and encourage students to include whole grain foods; eat dark green or orange vegetables; choose lean meat, chicken or fish; and drink low-fat or fat-free milk as recommended in the new U.S. Dietary Guidelines issued in January 2005.

During the one-week Live It! school program, your child’s class will keep track of both individual activity levels and the healthy food choices the students “fit in” each day. But they don’t have to stop there. Girls who achieve 11,000 steps daily and boys who reach 13,000 steps daily—five days a week, for six straight weeks—qualify for the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) from “The President’s Challenge,” a program of The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Coca-Cola will fund Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards for Students who access the “President’s Challenge” via www.liveitprogram.com and successfully complete the program requirements. For more information on “The President’s Challenge” or Live It!, please visit www.liveitprogram.com or www.presidentschallenge.org.

Teachers and cafeteria managers at your child’s school have been provided a variety of Live It! materials for the classroom and lunchroom. We encourage you to support your child’s participation in the program both at school and at home. (PR)