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Maryville, Mo. —
The little cracker-box gymnasium at the North Nodaway Elementary School in Pickering was a beehive of activity Friday afternoon, and that's just the way school nurse Deanna Scroggie wants it.
Scroggie is on a crusade to get kids away from their computer screens and television sets and onto bicycles, playgrounds, backyards and basketball courts in order to stem what she sees as a rising tide of childhood obesity and related health problems, such as diabetes.
She wants young people to eat better, too — lots of differently colored vegetables and whole grains while going easy on the red meat, snacks and sweets.
And that's why the tiny gym was rockin' on Friday.
With the help of the elementary school Student Council, who conducted an initial survey, Scroggie has obtained a $3,000 Fuel Up to Play 60 grant through the National Dairy Council and the National Football League.
The grant will be used to fund a variety of educational activities over the next four months designed to get youngsters to buy into the notion of eating healthy and engaging in physical activity for at least an hour a day.
Friday's event was the kick-off for the program and included appearances by Northwest Missouri State University football and soccer players, the cheer squad from North Nodaway High School in Hopkins and members of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter.
The U.S. Army National Guard showed up as well and set up an inflatable jousting ring where students took turns batting each other around with big, double-ended padded clubs while being cheered on by their classmates.
The walls of the gymnasium were plastered with pictured of students drinking milk and with signed pledges bearing promises from children to eat healthy, play 60 minutes a day and "be active and have fun with my friends to help make my school and even better place."
In between all the cheering, clapping, laughter and eager answering of questions from Bearcats athletes about how to stay in top condition, Scroggie took a moment to say that childhood obesity and other issues related to lack of activity and poor nutrition is a real problem in rural Nodaway County.
Schools, she said, have a big role to play in convincing children that one of the most important things they can do for themselves is to slim down and shape up.
"We have these kids all day," she said. "What we do here is a big influence on what they take home."
The little cracker-box gymnasium at the North Nodaway Elementary School in Pickering was a beehive of activity Friday afternoon, and that's just the way school nurse Deanna Scroggie wants it.
Scroggie is on a crusade to get kids away from their computer screens and television sets and onto bicycles, playgrounds, backyards and basketball courts in order to stem what she sees as a rising tide of childhood obesity and related health problems, such as diabetes.
She wants young people to eat better, too — lots of differently colored vegetables and whole grains while going easy on the red meat, snacks and sweets.
And that's why the tiny gym was rockin' on Friday.
With the help of the elementary school Student Council, who conducted an initial survey, Scroggie has obtained a $3,000 Fuel Up to Play 60 grant through the National Dairy Council and the National Football League.
The grant will be used to fund a variety of educational activities over the next four months designed to get youngsters to buy into the notion of eating healthy and engaging in physical activity for at least an hour a day.
Friday's event was the kick-off for the program and included appearances by Northwest Missouri State University football and soccer players, the cheer squad from North Nodaway High School in Hopkins and members of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter.
The U.S. Army National Guard showed up as well and set up an inflatable jousting ring where students took turns batting each other around with big, double-ended padded clubs while being cheered on by their classmates.
The walls of the gymnasium were plastered with pictured of students drinking milk and with signed pledges bearing promises from children to eat healthy, play 60 minutes a day and "be active and have fun with my friends to help make my school and even better place."
In between all the cheering, clapping, laughter and eager answering of questions from Bearcats athletes about how to stay in top condition, Scroggie took a moment to say that childhood obesity and other issues related to lack of activity and poor nutrition is a real problem in rural Nodaway County.
Schools, she said, have a big role to play in convincing children that one of the most important things they can do for themselves is to slim down and shape up.
"We have these kids all day," she said. "What we do here is a big influence on what they take home."
Scroggie said she often screens children whose body mass index, a ratio that measures the amount of fat someone is carrying in relation to their weight and height, is unacceptable.
"For way too many children that BMI index is just too high, and it just shouldn't be at that age," she said.
Now that North Nodaway Elementary is a Fuel Up to Play 60 school, it's students will have access to an online "playbook" containing learning tools and resources that promote menu planning, in-class activity breaks and daily exercise. The program also provides a monthly electronic newsletter for teachers and parents.
"We need community-wide support to help our students build positive, lifelong habits," Scroggie said. "Fuel Up to Play 60 provides the healthy messages, resources and activities we need to get started."
