New York suffered a huge blow due to Hurricane Sandy andwhile people were waiting in lines with gas cans at every gas station, the 2012Suffolk Zone Professional Development Conference remained on schedule, drawinghundreds of physical education professionals from across the state of New York. The NYS AHPERD, which stands for New YorkState Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, hasbeen hosting the Suffolk Zone event for the past couple years and its aim is toshow physical educators new and effective ways of getting students active andhealthy. This year the event was hostedat Sachem School District where they have a staple physical education program,being leaders in adapting new methods of fitness.
Sachem, like so many other school districts, applied for aFederal PEP Grant which allowed them to outfit their school district with newcutting edge group active fitness programs involving Exergaming. The Exergaming products that the PEP Grantallowed them to purchase have been a huge hit with the students and the PEinstructors are very excited to be implementing them into their daily curriculums. The two Exergame group fitness systems thatthey implemented are the iDance, comparable to Dance Dance Revolution, and theWebRacing Exergame Cycles. Both theiDance and WebRacing Cycles support up to 32 players, which was key in thedecision making process for Sachem. Their challenge was spending their PEP grant money effectively andmaking sure that those dollars delivered value to their students.
Sachem is not holding back any secrets, if you work at aschool district and are looking to revamp your physical education departmentand need guidance on the process of applying for a PEP Grant, Sachem invites you to contact them so thatthey can help you through much of the red tape. Their aim, along with the Suffolk Zone Conference, is to promote otherschools to adapt new forms of physical education.
We thank everyone over at Sachem for inviting us to attendthe Suffolk Zone event to demonstrate the iDance and WebRacing systems, and wehope that you have great success at promoting kids health and continue to bethe agents of change that you have become.