Fitness doesn't stop for snow

Indian Creek Elementary School student Emily Flandermeyer is a day away from achieving one of her fitness goals.
 
Saturday, she will be one of about 85 fifth-graders from Lawrence Township Schools to run in Indianapolis' Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis. Indian Creek, Brook Park and Skiles Test students have been training for the run with the help of adults in an eight-week after-school program.
"It's been hard sometimes, but overall it's been fun," said Emily, 10, who has been training for the event with other fifth-graders for weeks. "I've learned how to set goals and kind of work my way to achieve them, and never give up."
Flandermeyer and the other young runners are part of a larger Lawrence Township Schools project called My Community Gets Healthy, which is aimed at encouraging students to make their health and fitness a priority.
The Lawrence Township Schools program comes at a time when heath experts are spotlighting obesity in the United States, and statistics show that the proportion of Americans who are obese has doubled among adults and tripled among children since 1980. Seventy-two million adults are considered obese.
Some of the township's physical education teachers already have the technology -- including software and hand-held computers -- that allows students' fitness testing data to be compared with national results. Students can learn how their fitness levels, including body mass index, muscle strength and cardiovascular endurance, stacks up against others their age.
The devices also allow teachers to keep track of evaluations, used for grading, without a clipboard.
Letting students use gadgets like heart-rate monitors motivates them, said Pam Day, an Indian Creek Elementary physical education teacher who started using the technology with her students in 2002.
"I don't have one kid that doesn't want to come to my class," Day said. "They are motivated. I have technology. I have heart-rate monitors. . . . I have things to say, 'fitness is fun.' . . . I see a big difference in how they view fitness."
After Day got the first set of equipment through her school and funding from the Lawrence Township School Foundation, other teachers wanted it. Foundation officials started getting sponsors and providing funding to equip additional teachers with the devices, which cost about $5,000 per set.
Now, seven of the district's physical education teachers are using the equipment, said Christie Love, the school foundation's executive director.
But school officials want more of them to have access to it, and plan to expand the My Community Gets Healthy program districtwide in January.
To do that, the program needs an estimated $125,000, Love said. It also needs about $175,000 worth of sponsorships to help with other costs, she said.
"We want the equipment to be in the hands of all of our physical education teachers," said Love. "Our goal is to have a program after school that allows kids who are not otherwise organized in activities to have a place to be . . . and accomplish goals that (seem) beyond them."
To date, several corporations and businesses, including Community Health Network, the Greater Lawrence Chamber of Commerce and Sports of All Sorts, have donated, according to Love.

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