Active School Communities Gets More Kids Moving

A Shelburne County school community is launching a plan aimed at getting more youngsters physically active. Evelyn Richardson Memorial Elementary School in Shag Harbour is participating in a three-year pilot project designed to increase the number of opportunities for students and their families to be physically active.

"This is about the entire community working together towards a more healthy lifestyle for everyone -- especially for our young people," said Minister of Health Promotion Rodney MacDonald. "This involves parents, health authorities and community groups -

• everybody contributes to a healthy community."

Education Minister Angus MacIsaac agreed that everyone has a role to play in young peoples' health and fitness. "Through Learning for Life, we're giving our students more time to learn why it's important to lead healthy lifestyles. With help from parents and community leaders, we're also providing more opportunities for our children to put that theory into practice."

Evelyn Richardson Memorial's plan was officially launched today, March 24, and will be implemented by staff and volunteers from the school, the Municipality of Barrington and the South West Nova District Health Authority. It includes the purchase of new skipping ropes, balls and nets, after-school and intramural programs. It also includes field days and family activities such as hiking, bowling and skating. Students will also be offered leadership opportunities through weekly fitness classes.

"Schools are in the position to have an impact on young peoples' health and well-being every single day," said school principal Richard Britton. "Our students and the community around us will be exposed to a variety of activities and opportunities to get active -- whether through sports or simply walking to school, these activities demonstrate the importance of daily physical activity."

"We know that physical activity leads to healthy lifestyle habits," said Melanie Brannen, parent and chair of the student advisory council. "Hopefully, the entire community will respond, and we can all learn something about the importance and benefits of physical activity."

The school community's plan is to branch activities and partnerships into the area's family of junior and senior high schools by year three.

Evelyn Richardson Memorial is one of nine pilot sites scheduled to launch its Active School Communities project this spring. The Office of Health Promotion and Department of Education are each investing $10,000 this year per school site for the pilot projects.

The Active School Communities project is a component of the Active Kids, Healthy Kids strategy launched by Premier John Hamm in October 2002, and key in the province's Learning for Life plan announced by government last September.