At the end of 2015 we were like many others in the physical education world, saddened to hear that there would be a lack of PEP grants in 2016. As many are aware these are usually very large sums of money that go toward physical education grants, that schools can then use to fund their exergaming purchases. But we are happy to see and extend the great news that funds have become allocated for 2016 PEP Grants!
This is very important for a lot of schools because this may be the money they depend on for physical education for the next year – or several years. Some states or cities might not have the proper funding for schools, and the physical education departments are usually the first to suffer cutbacks.
This is also great news for us because Exergame Fitness started out with a lot of success with youth/kids fitness at virtually every place a child can safely be active; from a YMCA to after school program, park and rec centers, community centers, martial arts studio, to simply being a part of their PE class. One of our more popular room solutions in the past has been the Youth X Room and we have used this as a model for many physical education/youth fitness programs.
We encourage all schools and members involved in youth fitness programs to pursue a 2016 PEP Grant application. There is approximately $23,000,000 to be allocated for the grants and the deadline is May 20th, 2016. You can find all the detailed information about the new 2016 PEP Grants, the application, and help on the application process on the SPARK website here.
Check out our SmugMug galleries of the exergaming success Perry Lake School District and Salem School had through PEP Grants:See photos of the
See photos of the Perry Lake School District on SmugMug here
See photos of the Salem School on SmugMug here.
We hope that anyone looking into these PEP Grants is also interested in exergaming and interactive fitness for their youth programs. If exergaming is apart of your plan or idea for your youth fitness space, please do not hesitate to ask. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest exergaming and interactive fitness news and updates!