Success Stories - Kids
Recipes for Healthy Kids Judging Teams Begin School Visits
We’re entering the home stretch in the First Lady’s Recipes for Healthy Kids competition. Judges will be fanning out to schools across the country to watch them prepare the delicious recipes that have made it to the semi-finals. My colleague, Audrey Rowe, recently lead a team of judges to Harold S. Winograd School in Greeley, Colo., to kick off this phase of the competition, which is part of the First Lady’s effort to partner chefs with schools through her Let’s Move! initiative.
“Moving” with Dominique Dawes and Boys & Girls Clubs
May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month, and is the perfect time to celebrate how Let’s Move! and the Million PALA (Presidential Active Lifestyle Award) Challenge are helping Americans get healthy and fit. Through the Million PALA Challenge, an extension of the President’s Challenge, The President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition set a goal for 1 million Americans to earn a PALA by September 2011.
First Lady Michelle Obama Drops by a D.C. School to watch students do a Let’s Move! Flash Workout
You may have heard that the National Association of Broadcasters organized over 600 schools nationwide to perform a dance popularized by Beyonce in her video for “Move Your Body,” which encourages kids to get up and get moving. All the performances took place at 1:42 pm today. First Lady Michelle Obama stopped by Alice Deal Middle School in Washington, DC, to check out their event, and had some fun herself. Check it out:
Colusa Indian Community Goes Hand-in-Hand with Healthy Lifestyles
At the Colusa Indian Community Council’s Hand-in-Hand Learning Center in northern California, the garden is the focal point of a curriculum that revolves around physical and mental health, fresh food, and local partnerships. The garden, which has been a work in progress for the last five years, is central to Hand-in-Hand’s efforts to educate children and families about healthy lifestyles and obesity prevention.
NFL Quarterback Sam Bradford, Secretary Vilsack Urge Native Children to Get Outside and Get Active
St. Louis Rams quarterback Sam Bradford joined Secretary Vilsack in the USDA People’s Garden yesterday to urge Native American youth to spend the summer pursuing healthy outdoor activities. About 30 Native youth from across the Nation, including Tuba City, Arizona and Southeast Alaska, planted a Native American Garden (part of the USDA People’s Garden) as Bradford, Vilsack and other dignitaries spoke.
Colorado Students Celebrate the International Year of Forests by Planting Trees
More than 1,200 students, teachers and Scouts recently planted 4,500 trees at the Monument Fire Center on the Pike National Forest in Celebration of the International Year of Forests and as part of an ongoing restoration project in the area. The event brought elementary school students from Rockrimmon and Discovery Canyon Campus schools in Colorado Springs, Colo., to learn about forests, the role of fire in the ecosystem and how forests protect water. Another 1,500 trees were planted by Boy and Girl Scouts from the area.
Lacrosse, “The Medicine Game,” Creates Physical Activities Opportunity for Urban Native Youth
On March 12th, I joined a group of families and members of Native American Lifelines, an urban Indian community center in Baltimore, for the Konica-Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium. Kerry Lessard, the Health and Cultural Consultant for the center, was inspired by Let’s Move! and wanted to get the youth active through the sport of lacrosse, which has cultural significance in many Indian communities.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago Celebrates One-Year Anniversary of Let’s Move!
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago marked the date with healthy snacks and a visit from the USDA’s Power Panther mascot.
Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Asks Gathering of 4-H Youth to Commit to Public Service, Reach Out to At-Risk Peers
“I pledge my Head to clearer thinking, my Heart to greater loyalty, my Hands to larger service and my Health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.” This is the pledge that 300 4-H youth and volunteers gave on Monday when the 2011 National 4-H Conference kicked off in Bethesda, Md. Youth and adults from 47 states and territories, as well a delegation from Canada, took part in an event that has happened in the Washington area since the 1920s, when 4-Hers slept in tents on the Washington Mall in front of the USDA headquarters. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, or NIFA, is the parent organization to 4-H National Headquarters. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke to 4-Hers about community service, valuing education, and embracing positive health and nutrition habits.
April showers bring…Walk to School Day registration!
Shortly after the signs of spring begin to show – be it rain or snow showers – folks in the Safe Routes to School world begin to think about Walk to School Day registration. This year’s event will be celebrated across America on Wednesday, October 5, and I hope Let’s Move! supporters can join the fun. After all, it’s an international celebration of families and communities being active – together – on the way to school.
