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FIT FOR FUN PROGRAM
20 Years and Still Running
Fit for Fun is a way to educate kids to the importance of fitness training in relationship to lifelong coronary health and wellness. The running aside, the education to the importance of fitness and wellness is the key to the program. Another key is that every effort is made to educate the parents as well as the kids. If the parents are on board then the child will benefit even more from the program. -Paul Vogel Director/Manager Fit for Fun |
FROM PAULETTE ODENTHAL, DIRECTOR Fit-For-Fun is celebrating its 20th anniversary this April 2007. Over the years the Get-In-Gear Fit-For-Fun Youth Running Program has involved over 70 schools and helped nearly 50,000 children achieve higher levels of health and self-esteem. The Fit For Fun youth running program was awarded a 1998 Award of Excellence from the Minnesota Council on Physical Activity and Sports for its outstanding promotion of fitness, wellness and health for Minnesota's children.
Fit-For-Fun was created in 1987 in response to the burgeoning crisis in youth wellness. Elementary physical education programs alone cannot provide school-aged children the amount of movement opportunities to appropriately meet the challenges of changing lifestyles for both children and their parents. The goal of Fit-For-Fun is to treat kids (and their parents) to a fun, educational running experience (including an actual race event, the Get-In-Gear 2K) with the hope of encouraging continued running and racing long after the Fit-For-Fun Program and the Get-In-Gear 2K event are over.
Fit-For-Fun is Minnesota's first and largest school-based youth training program. The program's vision is based on providing elementary aged children with not only the opportunity to develop aerobic endurance, but to educate them as to why it is important to keep themselves fit, strong, and healthy. This cognitive component is what makes Fit-for-Fun different from most of its contemporaries. While many races today have children's events, not many have cognitive, fitness development and race components.
The Fit-For-Fun Program has an accompanying coach's curriculum, as well as a parent handbook. The goal of each is to provide coaches and parents with the knowledge and tools necessary to guide children toward the healthy and well lifestyle so absent today.
The Fit For Fun program has always been a part of the kick-off to the Minnesota running season which traditionally begins with its sister event, the Get in Gear 10K, as "Minnesota's Annual Rite of Spring."
For more information or to get your school involved, please contact Paul Vogel at 651-702-8220 or pvogel@isd622.org . Information can also be found at getingear10k.com or call the Get in Gear office at 612-722-9004.
Carol Goodrow: carolgoodrow@verizon.net
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