Volunteers Give 11 Schools in Chicago, Denver and Washington, D.C. Healthy Makeovers

Second-grader Raymundo Ramos couldn’t believe his eyes when she saw how the once “boring” blacktop playground at his Chicago school had been transformed into an activity wonderland, filled with track, soccer and football markings and grids for hopscotch, four square and other activities.

“I was surprised, because I never saw you guys get it done. I think it’s great,” said the William K. King Elementary student of the volunteer efforts during Get in the Action this fall, adding that before the transformation, he mostly used his school’s playground to simply run around or to slide down the sliding board. But today it’s a different story. He has choices for physical activity all around him and he really likes that.

“Now, I play tag, run around the track three times and play football!” Raymundo exclaims.

According to King Principal Shelton Flowers, Raymundo’s reaction was pretty typical of students school-wide. The kids have been so excited about their new and improved playground -  made possible because of donated artwork and supplies provided by GoGo squeeZ - that they use it every chance they get.

“They were excited right away and ready to run the mile,” Flowers noted. “They took off as fast as they could. … Any time the kids go out during school day or when they come back when school is over, they use the field out there and in the mornings prior to school (too). The other piece is that we have parents and teachers that, after work is over, they go out and walk the track and they put a mile in before they go home."

The King Elementary community can thank some 300 volunteers - made up of parents, educators, and corporate employees – who visited 11 schools in Chicago, Denver and Washington D.C. this fall to lend their time, muscle and nutritional expertise to stress the importance of eating healthy food to kids and their parents and to increase students’ opportunities for physical activity as part of the Get in the Action initiative. It empowers ordinary people to address the childhood obesity epidemic by making simple, lasting changes in schools. This fall, the initiative reached over 5,000 kids in the three cities.

Volunteers in Chicago, for example, taught sudents at King Elementary, and two other public schools, about nutrition and eating a balanced diet, then treated them to taste tests of nutritious foods and instructive fitness breaks. They also transformed an un-used space in a school that doesn't have a gym into an indoor fitness center that kids enjoy and installed bleachers on an undefined field at a high school.

Take a look at our Get in the Action photo gallery!

Denver Students "JAM" with Activity and Learn about Nutrition

At each of the four Get in the Action schools in Denver, volunteers held JAM (Just-a-minute fitness) sessions in the morning as kids lined up to enter school for the day. Then, they held healthy food taste testing, nutrition education, and JAM sessions for each classroom throughout the day.  After school, they held wellness celebrations consisting of local health and wellness vendors and Jammin’ Jr. concerts leading one second-grader at Brown International School to declare: "I wish we had this everyday!"

Of course, that’s the goal of the initiative: getting kids and their families to incorporate eating healthy food and being physically active into their daily lives, which can curb the childhood obesity epidemic. Currently, over 30% of kids in the United States are overweight or obese and at risk for serious medical conditions ranging from hypertension to Type 2 Diabetes as a result. Fortunately, Get in the Action is an effective way to teach kids healthy habits and to make their schools healthier places.

Beth Schwisow M.S., R.D., area supervisor for food and nutrition services, Denver Public Schools, who attended each of the Denver Get in the Action events remarked that not only were the students engaged and excited, but that parents learned eye-opening lessons about health and nutrition too, which, she notes, is key to ensuring healthier lifestyles for kids.

“At each event, our foodservice department served samples of our garden chili, fresh homemade garlic bread, and homemade granola bars while Get in the Action volunteers offered samples of fresh fruits and vegetables. Parents seemed surprised that, without prompting, their children were so willing to take the healthy food samples, ” says Schwisow.  “It was heartening to me that parents might be encouraged to offer more healthy options at home after seeing the positive response of their kids to new foods.” 

 Adds Denver Get in the Action Coordinator Allison Stewart:  “Our Get in the Action events were amazing and everyone wants us back next year. From implementing a new salad bar to dancing with Jammin’ Jr. and the Jammonites, whose music promotes healthy eating, physical activity and character building – we did it!  Our volunteers and school parents worked directly with school staff, district personnel, and the community to make the Get in the Action and school wellness celebrations a success.” 

Kids in Washington, D. C. Get Lasting Lessons about Nutrition and More Opportunities to Play  
 
In Washington, D.C., volunteers at four schools restored three playgrounds, built two school gardens (a total of 12 raised beds), and created a fitness room with new kid-friendly equipment and a Wii Fit.  Students even got in the action themselves at three of the four campuses, helping to build the school  gardens and paint the blacktop at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School.

Tanya Morgan, academy leader of Community Academy Public Charter School – Amos 2, says her pre-kindergarten and kindergarteners are reaping the benefits of a Get in the Action-renovated playground that’s now cleaner, safer and graffiti-free.

“They painted over some of the graffiti and stuff that was on the playground apparatus, cleaned out the sandbox and made it a little bit more usable for the children and less dangerous and also donated some other toys that they could play with out on the playground,” Morgan explained, adding that even before the Get in the Action renovation, her students used the playground every day. But unsafe circumstances limited the way they used the outdoor space.

“We’re a small school and it’s a very small playground. The problem with that is, sometimes because there’s not a lot of public space, some of the older kids from around the area have come by and they increasingly have begun to use it after hours as a hangout spot; So there was some inappropriate stuff written around – not that the kids can read it, because our kids are all early childhood, three, four and five – but just the defaming and defacing of their space (was inappropriate.) So (the Get in the Action volunteers) certainly helped to clean up some of that stuff,” says Morgan. “It’s definitely a safer place for them to play and I think they realize that because we were always like, ‘No, no come out of there. Don’t go over there,’ especially for the sandbox area. So it’s a safer place for them. … And they’ve noticed that the playground looks clean.”



Of course, Get in the Action in Washington, D.C. wasn't only all about physical actvity. The kids are holding onto lasting lessons about nutrition as well:

“They really enjoyed the (GoGo squeeZ) taste tests. I know they left a lot of samples with us so we’re sort of continually using those and the kids love those. I know the parents have come to me and said ‘My child loves apple sauce and loves to get this particular brand,’ kind of thing and so it’s helping them with that aspect of good nutrition and health in eating and encouraging their parents even to be more active partners in that," said Morgan.