Brandi Chastain to Help Launch Fit for Learning

Brandi Chastain to Help Kids and County Office of Education Launch New Program - Fit for Learning

SAN JOSE, CA -- Fit for Learning, Santa Clara County's new school-based program designed to combat childhood obesity and poor health, will be launched with fanfare from students, teachers and notables including Brandi Chastain on:

Weds., Oct. 26, at 10:30 a.m. Allen at Steinbeck Elementary School 820 Steinbeck Dr. off Santa Teresa Blvd. in San Jose.
10:30 a.m. -	5^th graders, special guests and community leaders will engage in fitness activities on the school playground.
10:45 a.m. -	Dr. Colleen Wilcox, County Superintendent of Schools, Don Iglesias, Superintendent, San Jose Unified School District, and "Fit for Learning Champion" Brandi Chastain will be among speakers.
11:00 a.m. -	Q & A session.

The Fit for Learning program will focus on increasing students' physical activity and improving their nutrition.

Last year only 28% of local students who took the state's Physical Fitness Test passed all fitness areas and nearly 25% were identified as overweight. Those figures prompted Dr. Colleen Wilcox, County Superintendent of Schools, to invite experts in education, medicine and public health to collaborate on an initiative designed to be a model for the state.

"The crisis in children's health costs the state $12.7 billion a year," Wilcox says, "and more importantly it significantly impacts the quality of young people's lives and their ability to succeed in school.

Our schools are ideal settings for health education programs like Fit for Learning – which will encourage students to exercise more, eat better, and understand the long-term benefits of both."

Fit for Learning will initially focus on 5th grade classes, but is expected to expand to all elementary grades next year.

Teachers will be given a Classroom Resource Guide to help them incorporate nutrition and physical education into classroom learning. Important topics have been grouped into different themes for each month of the school year. The theme for October, for example, is "Let's Move" and materials urge student to increase their physical activity to at least 60 minutes each day. The classroom guide was written by Dr. Jennifer Morris of the Stanford School of Medicine's Prevention Research Center. Content is linked to the state's academic standards.

In support of teachers' classroom activities, school-based teacher and parent "Champions" are being trained by health and fitness experts to further develop healthy campus environments.

Students and their families also will be engaged in creating healthy campuses and participating in after-school and parent-support programs. "Fit for Learning addresses healthy living at every level," notes Superintendent Wilcox, "including the classroom, the school, the school district, and the home and community."

Fit for Learning is provided by the Santa Clara County Office of Education in cooperation with The Health Trust and Healthy Silicon Valley, and with support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, YMCA, and Guidant Foundation.

More information on Fit for Learning is available on its website, www.fitforlearning.org which also has information on state legislation related to school nutrition reforms, fitness activities in the Silicon Valley area, and federal nutrition guidelines and the new MyPyramid for kids.