Tag Archives: physical activity

Chatham County schools get moving!

Posted on April 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Healthy Schools Awareness DayChatham County Public Health Department (CCPHD) and Chatham County Schools have teamed up to help Chatham County youth get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity each day. With the help of an Eat Smart Move More grant, Bonlee School, Horton Middle School, and Moncure School will be making healthy changes to encourage their students to be more physically active.  Over this past school year, wellness teams at each of the schools have been working with Ellie Morris, Public Health Educator for the CCPHD, to create a plan to make it easier for youth to meet the 60 minutes a day goal.  Each school will receive a small grant next school year to help implement their plan.

The changes that the schools are planning will “…make students, staff, and parents more aware of how to make fitness a part of the everyday norm.” This is the goal of the wellness team at Moncure School which has had lots of ideas for how to use these grant funds and is currently deciding which approach will best benefit the whole school community.

Increasing opportunities for physical activity for students, as well as for their adult role-models and care-givers, is also an important consideration at Bonlee School. As Principal Daniel Haithcox said of the project, “We are planning to build a walking course at our school that is both accessible to students during the school day as well as to students and their families after school hours…By giving the community a chance to participate and reinforce healthier lifestyle habits, we feel our students will benefit more.”

At Horton Middle School, the principal and wellness team are also focused on a change to the school grounds that will increase students’ opportunities to be active. They plan to develop part of their campus into a sports field that will hopefully serve the school’s soccer teams as well as provide another outdoor play area for use by groups during recess, PE class, and after school.

With all of these plans in the works, these are exciting times for school wellness! If you’d like to get involved, please contact the principal at your community’s school or Ellie Morris at elizabeth.morris@chathamnc.org or 545-8514.

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Join Adventure into the World of Wellness Passport Program!

Posted on March 11, 2011 | Leave a comment

Are you ready for an adventure?

 Adventure in to the World of Wellness:  A passport challenge through Pittsboro is an adventure for you and your family or friends to be active and healthy in Pittsboro! Visit the parks and fitness centers in Pittsboro AND enjoy healthy foods from a variety of markets, grocery, and gardening stores in Pittsboro to be eligible for great prizes.  

Register for your passport and complete the activities in it between April 2nd and May 12th. To register, call Carla Strickland at 919-545-8513 or email at carla.strickland@chathamnc.org  by Monday, March 28th.  Registration will also be held Tuesday, March 22nd at Piggly Wiggly in Pittsboro from 3:30pm to 5:30 pm.   

Passports can be picked up at the kick-off event Saturday, April 2nd between 3:00pm and 5:00pm at the Mary Hayes Barber Holmes Park located at 304 Old Rock Springs Cemetery Rd, Pittsboro, NC 27312.  Enjoy a variety of activities including yoga, art, kickball, and more at the kick-off!  If you can’t make the kick-off, passports and materials can be mailed.  

For more information contact Megan Bolejack at 919-545-8518 or megan.bolejack@chathamnc.org. You can also visit www.chathamnc.org/publichealth.  Be Active, Be Healthy Pittsboro!

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Are We Physically Active Enough?

Posted on March 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

“We need to make the healthy choice the easy choice,” State Health Director Dr. Jeff Engel said. “By creating communities where people can be more physically active wherever they are, we will reduce the burden of obesity and chronic disease that is so costly to our state.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released data that shows many adults in North Carolina are not physically active other than daily tasks they perform for their jobs. In 2008, the CDC estimated that nearly 21% of adults Chatham County are physically inactive- not doing any kind of physical activity in their leisure time. During that same year, the CDC identified 25.8% of Chatham County adults as obese. 

State leaders are looking to change trends like these in counties across North Carolina. The North Carolina Division of Public Health (DPH) received a $3 million grant from the CDC in 2009 for a Healthy Environments Initiative. The project will address the complex issue of built environments by identifying needs and barriers to healthy environments. 

As part of the grant, DPH is partnering with 11 municipalities across the state, as well as the N.C. Department of Transportation, the N.C. Department of Commerce and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources to create a picture of the policies and realities that have helped form the current state of health. 

The state is also working on a public information campaign to educate North Carolinians on the effect that built environments have on our overall health and lifestyles. The campaign will launch statewide in April and ask state residents to act to shape a better built environment for their communities. 

For more information on the state’s Built Environment Policy Initiative Grants Program, please go to http://www.ncdhhs.gov/pressrel/2010/2010-8-3-healtycitygrants.htm.

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Keep Moving During Winter Months

Posted on November 9, 2010 | Leave a comment

family walk - _MG_1442

Winter may seem like a good time to cuddle up on the couch with a blanket and hot chocolate and not worry about being active. Even though winter months are cold and it gets dark earlier, it is important for your health to keep moving.

Here are some tips to keep you activity levels up December through February: 

  1. Get a membership at a local workout facility or gym. This is one way to get exercise while it’s cold outside. Simply stay inside and exercise! Doing exercise DVDs at home is a great way to stay in shape too!
  2. Put on warm clothing and take a walk. If dressed appropriately, walking outside during the winter months is a great way to get your heart rate up. Walk with a friend and have a great time.
  3. Take up a winter sport. Hockey, cross-country skiing, ice skating, snowboarding and nordic walking are all great sports for the winter time. Find some friends and make it a group activity.

We need snow in central North Carolina before we can do the last two! 

  1. Take a child sledding. Nothing gets the heart pumping like climbing giant hills through two feet of snow. Both kids and adults will get a great workout doing this.
  2. Put away the snowblower and pick up your snow shovel. You’re guaranteed some excellent physical activity on this one. Trust me, I don’t even own a snowblower and my heart thanks me for it!

Tips are from http://www.ehow.com/how_4718436_stay-physically-active-during-winter.html

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Grant awarded to support physical activity in Chatham County Schools

Posted on July 6, 2010 | 1 Comment

Hopscotch by Jan Tik

This June, the Chatham County Public Health Department (CCPHD) was awarded a grant from North Carolina’s Eat Smart Move More Community grant program to increase youth physical activity in the county. With this funding, the School Health Liaison, Ellie Morris, and other staff members from the Community Health Promotion and Advocacy Division of the CCPHD will work with the non-profit organization, Be Active North Carolina and three Chatham County Schools, Moncure School, Bonlee School and Horton Middle School. The partners will implement Be Active North Carolina’s Just Push Play Program.

This is an exciting opportunity that will support these schools in making innovative and sustainable changes to increase their students’ physical activity.  Through the Just Push Play program, schools will form wellness teams to assess their current capacity to promote physical activity and will plan for healthy change.  The teams will work toward physical changes to their schools that encourage exercise and active play (for example, building a walking path, or painting a hopscotch board to encourage active recess) as well as program and policy changes.  Each school will receive a mini-grant to make these changes a reality. 

The implementation of Just Push Play at Moncure, Bonlee and Horton schools fits nicely into the array of programs and initiatives already in place in the county.  Chatham County’s Team Fit has been helping to organize staff wellness programs with schools throughout the county (see our post on the successful partnership between Bennett School and Team Fit at http://www.chathampublichealth.com/programs/team-fit-helps-bennett-school-get-fit/) and many schools have taken the initiative to offer staff wellness opportunities on their own, including fitness competitions and free fitness classes.

With new interest and new programs springing up all around the county, the state, and the nation, this is an exciting time for school health. Chatham County has great partnerships in place to support this expanding focus—the School Health Liaison and other staff from the Chatham County Public Health Department and other community organizations will continue to work with Chatham County Schools and with Chatham County’s School Health Advisory Council to ensure that our schools are health-promoting places to learn, work, and play.  

To learn more about school-based health promotion, please contact Ellie Morris, School Health Liaison with the Chatham County Public Health Department, at 919-545-8514 or elizabeth.morris@chathamnc.org.

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