U.S. Cellular’s “Calling All Communities” campaign challenges schools to gather community support for a chance to win $25,000 in order to enhance their educational experience.
Edison Elementary, located in Appleton, WI, is one of the schools that is participating in the challenge to implement a wellness room. For the past few years, Edison Elementary has strongly focused on the health and wellness of their students and staff. In fact, the Appleton Area School District was the only district in Wisconsin to receive the Platinum Wisconsin School Health Award.
Although Edison Elementary has done a great job helping their kids stay active, they still wanted to step out-of-the-box and try something different and new that motivates kids to exercise and love it.
Chuck Heurkens, Physical Education teacher at the school knew about exergames beforehand. He saw how kids reacted to them and how much they liked them. “Exergames are fun, different and they will help kids lead an active lifestyle,” says Heurkens. Some of the exergame products Heurkens is interested in for the wellness room is Touch Magic Flow, TWall, and 3Kick. He believes these products are something kids can relate to and they are of different variety so they work on different muscles.
The benefits Edison Elementary hopes to gain by having the wellness room is a decrease in impulsivity, improvements in fitness and academic scores, and overall kids becoming more active. For kids that are having trouble staying motivated to exercise, the school plans on having an eight week boot camp that will include both fitness and nutritional activities. This will be even more effective when the parents as well as the community participate on educating kids on what’s healthy and how to stay active after school.
Edison Elementary is working hard to win the challenge by getting kids and parents involved and invested in spreading the word to family members and friends. In addition, they have university partnerships with St. Lawrence University, UW-Oshkosh, and Ryan Sawlsville, a local man who was on “Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, who are all taking part in helping out the school as best as they can.
All their community effort has paid off thus far. They are now in the lead of the challenge but still need your vote.
1) Go to USCellular.Com
2) Register first and you will get an email from US Cellular.
3) You need to open that email and THEN you can VOTE EDISON.
The challenge ends November 25, 2013 so please VOTE NOW! It is important to note that the challenge winner get $25,000 and the Edison Elementary wellness room project will cost around $90,000. If anyone is interesting in sponsoring Edison Elementary to fulfill their goal and help kids be active and stay healthy, please contact Exergame Fitness 877-668-4664.