Seattle Thunderbirds help Kent school celebrate fitness win

After a summer spent eating smart, playing hard and learning about nutrition, the winner of the Cruzin’ Passport Challenge in the Kent School District was announced this week and a $1,000 check for new physical education equipment was presented to Covington Elementary School.

The Cruzin’ Passport program, organized by Kent4Health and the Coalition for a Healthy Community in partnership with the cities of Kent and Covington, encouraged elementary school kids throughout the Kent School District to stay active through the summer and collect stamps from 88 local businesses in a passport book.

The businesses focused on either teaching the kids proper eating, exercise or learning about healthy habits. The Kent Reporter was a sponsor of the program.

According to Pam Clark, city of Kent liaison for Kent4Health, the idea is to keep kids active during the summer to help combat childhood obesity. According to a study from the Center for Disease Control, one-third of American children are either overweight or obese.

“That’s why we target the elementary schools,” Clark said. “This is the age to catch them while they’re still forming healthy habits.”

At Crestwood, more than 40 kids turned in passports, giving them the highest rate of the 24 schools that returned passports to the program. The distinction earned them $1,000 for new physical-education equipment and a visit from Seattle Thunderbirds Prab Rai and Sena Acolatse, as well as their mascot Cool Bird, who led the kids in cheers and then helped demonstrate the importance of healthy eating by drinking a soda while everyone else ate healthy snacks such as carrots and apples.

“That soda has a lot of sugar in it,” Pam Kramer of Multicare, who along with Valley Medical was a chief sponsors of the program, told the kids as she held up a baggie filled with sugar as a demonstration. “Sorry Cool Bird, that’s just not cool.”

Asking the kids about healthier snacks, Kramer encouraged them to drink water, juice or milk instead as a way to stay healthy.

“The reason we did this is for you,” she said of the program. “We want you to be healthy your entire life.”

According to Crestwood physical education teacher Linda Mayes, it is important to reach the kids now.

“What they do now, they’ll do later on,” she said. “They have their body for the rest of their lives.”

Mayes said the $1,000 prize was “huge” for the school since her yearly budget to replace equipment is only $300. In a slide show for the kids, Mayes detailed what the money would be used for, including two roller racers, six scooters, 12 table tennis nets and 6 paddles, and a unicycle, among other things.

“We’re buying things we didn’t have that we wanted,” she said.

Crestwood Principal Linda Butts said she was proud of her school and that winning meant that parents were also being very supportive.

“For us it means, first and foremost, our kids are learning healthy habits,” she said.

Butts also attributed the win to Mayes for getting the kids excited about the program.

In addition to the $1,000 check, donated by Univar USA of Kent, each child at Crestwood who turned in a passport was called up individually and given a bag filled with prizes such as gift cards and a beach ball by the Thunderbirds on hand for the event.

Throughout the program though, students got prizes from the local businesses simply for being involved.

“Every child received a prize just for participating,” Clark said. “It pays to be active.”

Clark said the Covington schools tended to do better this year because it was their second year in the program, while it was the first for Kent, but promised it would be “bigger and better” next year.

“We’re going to make sure it’s a Kent school that wins next year,” she said.

For more information about the Cruzin’ Passport program visit www.cruzinpassport.com, or www.kent4health.com.