Fit Kids: Team Effort
By: John Kucko
Updated: February 10, 2009
Thanks to a grant from the Greater Rochester Health Foundation, city kids and their parents learn the virtues of Good nutrition and exercise once a month. The program is run by the metro YMCA at the Maria Day Hostess Charter School. "This is more of a prevention angle than a treatment angle," said Kristen Rusho of the YMCA. "Kids are moving and having fun, and they want to move for the rest of their lives.
Participation has been climbing with each seminar, making fitness a priority -- no easy task.
"Some of the biggest challenges are going to be neighborhoods where people live; is it safe for children to go out and play?" said Karen Blank, a project coordinator. "Obviously technology plays a huge role. We've become such a technological society that it's slowing down our kids from really getting out there and being engaged."
With childhood obesity increasing at an alarming rate, it's programs like this one that get kids active, and get them thinking in the right dirtection.
