LIHUE — Bev Brody of Get Fit Kauai could not believe her eyes Friday when she was greeted by more than 400 fifth-grade students from Elsie Wilcox Elementary School, King Kaumualii Elementary School, and Kapaa Elementary School during the third
LIHUE — Bev Brody of Get Fit Kauai could not believe her eyes Friday when she was greeted by more than 400 fifth-grade students from Elsie Wilcox Elementary School, King Kaumualii Elementary School, and Kapaa Elementary School during the third annual Fitness Fun Meet at Vidinha Stadium.
“I just came to warm them up,” Brody said. “This is wonderful. Promoting physical activity should be fun, and this FitnessGram Standardized Fitness Assessment utilizes the newest technology and cutting edge of fitness testing.”
Michelle Jenkins, Hawaii Health Initiative, Kauai District Health and physical education resource teacher, said the goal of the Fitness Fun Meet is to encourage physical activity and to improve health-related fitness levels.
“There are three groups doing the assessments,” Jenkins said. “One group is doing muscle strength and endurance, another is measuring cardiovascular endurance, and the final one measures flexibility and body composition. There are other stations involved in physical fun events such as relay races to keep the students warmed up while waiting on assessments.”
The assessments are done at the beginning, mid-year, and at the end of the year, allowing students to see their progress in different areas and also demonstrates the effects of more physical activity.
“Today’s event is a mid-year check to see how the students are doing,” Jensen said. “We also want to show students that physical activity is a fun thing to do in a positive environment.”
Jenkins said students need help being active.
“Without a full compilation of all the results, about 60 percent of our young people are healthy, and about 40 percent need help in being engaged in physical activity,” she said. “We have a high obesity rate and our health is falling apart because of the lack of physical activity.”
Brody said this is where the Safe Routes to School program comes in.
“Walking to school engages the student in physical activity, in many cases, enough to satisfy the minimum day’s suggestion,” Brody said. “It also encourages safety along the route and talks about the benefits of walking to school.”
Barbara Bloemke, a fifth-grade teacher at Wilcox School, liked the fitness meet.
“This is not run by classroom teachers,” Bloemke said. “It’s run by PE teachers who are high energy and get the kids motivated about doing things like pushups and situps. The kids don’t have to hear us for this one day.”
Constance Amorin, a fifth-grade student from King Kaumualii School, said she did better in her situps and pushups.
“She’s in great shape,” said Lisa Lemy, King Kaumualii School teacher. “She’s already ahead of the game with improvements in two of the areas that we did pre-testing at the school.”
