VWES PE program earns national grant

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A Van Wert Elementary School physical education department has earned a national grant for one of its innovative wellness/fitness programs.

According to Betty Holliday, VWES physical education teacher, the school recently was one of seven programs nationwide to be awarded a Saucony Run for Good Foundation grant.

The other six programs that received grants are in Texas, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Florida.

The local grant will support VWES’s Road Runners after-school running program, Holliday noted, as well as a 1-mile Turkey Trot being held in November for the school community. Van Wert boy and girl cross country runners will also take part in helping motivate the younger children.

The grant is the latest awarded to support a large variety of fitness and nutrition programs implemented at VWES, going back more than a decade to programs begun at what was then Jefferson Elementary School.

“We took the philosophy that, when you start with fun, it can last a lifetime,” Holliday said. “We believe that fitness and wellness are a very important part of, and tie in directly with, academics, for total student success.”

Those first programs, a walking program, coupled with a family fitness night, have expanded into a number of fitness/wellness/nutrition programs today at VWES.

The Road Runner 100-Mile Club after-school program challenges students to either walk or jog 100 miles in a school year, with interim awards handed out at 25-, 50- and 75 miles, and a medal given for reaching the 100-mile plateau.

Holliday said a total of 247 students earned medals last year for reaching their 100-mile goal.

The school’s Road Runner program also includes nutrition information, as well as running and other fitness components.

The VWES physical education teacher said she and fellow phys. ed. teacher Dave Branfield took an active role in coming up with new programs after seeing students doing poorly on fitness testing. “I took a personal interest after we saw 40 percent of students not doing well on fitness testing,” Holliday said, noting that Body Mass Index scores were also below average for the local student population at that time.

The grants awarded recently were part of more than $1 million awarded by the Saucony Run for Good Foundation since 2006, all dedicated to preventing childhood obesity through running and an active lifestyle.

“The problem of childhood obesity should be of great concern to everyone, since it impacts so many kids on so many levels, including school performance,” said Richie Woodworth, president of the Saucony and Saucony Run for Good Foundation Board of Directors. “With so many schools reducing or eliminating their physical education programs due to budget cuts, all of us need to work together — families, communities and schools — to give our kids opportunities for physical activity before, during and after school.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has more than tripled over the past 30 years. One of every five children ages 6-11 is now considered obese.

The 100-Mile Club is just one of several fitness/wellness programs at VWES, Holliday noted, with nearly all of them started and/or maintained with grant funding, although she added that Principal Kevin Gehres and the VWES staff, local businesses and individuals, the VWES PTO and Van Wert County Hospital have all provided support of one type or another for the school’s fitness programs.

Other programs recently begun or in the planning stages include a garden program started by teacher Nate Hoverman to grow vegetables students can enjoy, and a Classroom Brain Breaks program that would allow teachers to provide physical activity of some kind to students every 60 or 90 minutes throughout the school day. Holliday said the Classroom Brain Breaks program is shown to improve math scores and other student learning.

Meanwhile, Holliday and Branfield, as well as Principal Kevin Gehres and the VWES staff will continue to seek ways to improve students’ fitness and wellness, while also improving youngsters’ test scores and overall physical well-being.