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Healthy start for students
Caroline County school wins award for promoting good health
Date published: 10/2/2005
By KATIE TELLER
America is in the midst of what has been called an obesity epidemic. But children at Ladysmith Primary School in Caroline County are being guided toward healthy lifestyles.
In June, the school received a bronze medal from the state for teaching prekindergarten through second-grade students good health habits. The school was one of six of Virginia's 1,800 public schools to be recognized.
The bronze medal came from Gov. Mark Warner's office as part of the Healthy Virginians initiative. The initiative promotes healthy living in Virginia's schools, as well as in homes and workplaces.
To compete for the award, elementary school administrators filled out an online scorecard about how the school is promoting healthy habits.
"When we initially looked at the types of questions that were being asked, we really had a good feeling that we had a good chance at this, just because of the programs that we were already doing," Principal Harold Pellegreen said.
The questions on the scorecard asked specifics about snack times and calorie counts, as well as physical activity and its integration into classroom curriculum.
Pellegreen said the school has its students take part in a number of annual physical-fitness programs, in addition to regular physical education classes. The annual events include Jump Rope for Heart, Relay for Life and an annual field day.
The school also participates in a program called ACES, or All Children Exercising Simultaneously--in which, on one day of the year, all students in participating schools exercise at the same time.
Also, this summer, the school sent home a program to keep the kids active while they weren't in school. Physical education teacher Susan Huffman called it a "walking program," in which students and parents recorded time they spent walking.
These programs helped the school win its bronze medal, Huffman and Pellegreen said.
Noreen Crowley, Virginia's assistant secretary of education, praised the award-winning schools such as Ladysmith for going the extra mile when it comes to teaching healthy habits.
"They knew this was a priority. and they knew this was something important," said Crowley, a former Stafford County School Board member.
The Healthy Virginians program was created to combat rising obesity levels. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 58 percent of Virginians are overweight or obese, and 23 percent do not exercise on a regular basis.
The obesity rate in Virginia has risen faster than in any other state--10 percent in the past decade, according to the CDC.
But the students at Ladysmith Primary don't know about obesity rates or state initiatives--they just have fun participating in events that keep them moving.
"Kids and play, it's totally natural," Pellegreen said. "They're not really cognizant that we received this award."
Date published: 10/2/2005
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