Now this is what I like to see!!! We need more schools to get involved like this.
Free health fair at Ola Middle School targets childhood obesity
By Johnny Jackson
Gavin Colquitt looked out over the crowded gymnasium at Ola Middle School glad to see his community’s first step toward healthier living.
Dozens of teachers and parents filed into the school’s gymnasium all day on Wednesday to participate in the school’s first annual health fair geared toward combating childhood obesity.
“The purpose of the health fair is to get our parents involved and to get the staff viewing [health] as a priority,” said Colquitt, a health and physical education teacher at Ola.
Last September, Colquitt helped form the Ola Middle School Health Council in which the school’s principal, physical education staff, and nutrition manager discussed ways to improve health and nutrition within the Ola community.
“We found that our biggest area of need was staff and parental involvement,” Colquitt said.
He said the need generated interest at the school to involve and educate Ola’s adult community, which could eventually seep into the community, into its families, and to its children.
“We’re really just trying to get people to prioritize health education especially for children,” he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control Adolescent and School Health Division, about 16 percent of children are now overweight and are more likely to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high insulin levels.
The CDC also reports that since 1980, the percentage of overweight children and adolescents has more than doubled. And about 35 percent of high school youth do not engage in vigorous physical activity on a regular basis.
Colquitt, a former professional personal trainer at Gold’s Gym, added that in many instances adults retain the physical and nutrition habits they learn as adolescents. That is, overweight adolescence are more likely than the average to become overweight adults with increased chances of heart disease and diabetes.
“This is why it’s such a serious problem,” Colquitt said.
But teachers like Terri Carvey are good examples of warding off the effects of obesity in adulthood.
Carvey, an eighth grade math teacher at Ola, took part in the health fair’s several vending booths which included fitness information from Gold’s Gym of McDonough, free blood pressure measurements from the Morrow Fire Department, nutrition information from health care organization “Georgia Action Healthy Kids,” and healthy living information pamphlets from the American Cancer Society.
“The (health fair) concept’s perfect,” said Carvey as she walked to the fairs different booths.
“I’ve lost 108 pounds since October of 1998,” she said. “In the last year and a half, I’ve lost 65 pounds.”
A petite Carvey says she keeps her weight down by adhering to a 1,200 calories-per-day diet and working out three times a week.
For Ola’s principal Louann Jones, the health fair was a success and will be an annual event for the Ola community. She said it will be incorporated into the school’s improvement plan and health and nutrition curriculum.
“This is something that definitely needs to be a part of everybody’s school improvement plan,” Jones said. “[It’s] really helping us adults to become more aware of the importance of health and nutrition.”
Childhood Obesity
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