At Plainfield Elementary School near Allentown, Pa., one second grader, a girl, reluctantly enrolled in the after-school line-dancing program.
Not long after, she was showing off her new dance moves to her mom. And that was enough to convince her mom to join her in the gym.
After only three sessions, this new mother daughter dance duo, previously sedentary, told after-school coordinator Todd Yatchyshyn, "We practice our dances together in the kitchen every morning!"
"We have hundreds of positive stories like that," Yatchyshyn explains. For example, for an after-school fitness and recreation program for second and third-grade students, he used a Highmark Healthy High 5 School Challenge grant to fund intramural floor hockey.
"We couldn't afford to buy goalie pads and masks," Yatchyshyn says. "Highmark Foundation's Healthy High 5 grant helped us."
Floor hockey drew 12 girls and 54 boys. Then, Yatchyshyn included the after-school line dancing, and 15 boys and 40 girls showed up. Soccer has grown from 50 students to more than 70.
"We've seen a whole change in attitude and culture with the addition of more fun fitness activities," Yatchyshyn says. "First, students don't want to miss school when there's the after-school program. They can't wait to get here. Then, when they get home, they're still interested. Instead of playing a video game, one boy, for example, now plays backyard soccer. He had never done that before. One girl asked her parents to buy her a hockey stick. They're saying 'after school we're active. We exercise. We work out.' It's become something new they do. And it's great!"
Learn about helping kids make healthy food choices by reading our Nutrition pages.
Learn more about Highmark Healthy High 5 School Challenge grants.
This story was originally published in an April 5, 2009, advertising supplement for Highmark Healthy High 5.