| Mayor Certifies BCS Fitness |
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Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell honored Brentwood Christian School as a Mayor’s Fitness Council Partner on June 10 at a ceremony in the Council Chambers recognizing the school’s commitment to supporting a culture of wellness among its faculty and staff. Leffingwell said BCS “is a role model for others because of the support you have given your employees by promoting healthy lifestyles.” School president Marquita Moss, education vice president Libby Weed, high school librarian Tere Hager, and 4th grader Corrie Hager accepted the award on behalf of the school. “As Christian educators, we believe it is important for us to set a good example to our students in healthy living,” Mrs. Moss said told the mayor. Mrs. Moss signed up BCS to participate in the wellness project in the spring of 2009, and Mrs. Hager and BCS journalism and history teacher Jonathan Weed coordinated a year-long project with the administration, faculty, and staff. The Mayor's Fitness Council was established in by former Mayor Will Wynn, who invited Mrs. Moss and a number of other business owners and organization heads to a luncheon to recruit them for participation in the project. He said the wanted “to raise awareness of the cost of health care, to promote prevention of chronic diseases and better health in Austin, and to promote the city of Austin as a healthy place to live and work with the primary goal of becoming ‘The Fittest City in the U.S.’” Certification required initiation of projects that would promote increasing physical activity, improving nutrition, and reduce tobacco use. “We would have been certified sooner if we could have figured out a way to take some kind of required action to reduce tobacco use earlier. None of us use tobacco, so how could we reduce it? We finally got approval by committing to put up “smoke-free environment” and “no smoking” signs in faculty-staff workrooms.” The major thrust of the certification effort led by Mrs. Hager and Mr. Weed began last August with a “friendly competition.” The faculty and staff were split into eight teams of about eight members each, and every week they could earn points by doing things like exercis¬ing, eating five servings of fruits and vegeta¬bles a day, and not eating unhealthy snacks. Every week also included opportunities to earn bonus points by doing things like drink¬ing at least six glasses of water a day, not eat¬ing fast food, or getting at least seven hours of sleep. Some weeks the bonus was more creative, like parking far away from school or other destinations and walking the rest of the way. Each Thursday the points were totaled and the team with the highest average was given the coveted golden apple. “It started out as a fake apple that was gold, but Mrs. (Mary Kay) Clark made apple mag¬nets that get passed around every week to the team that gets the most points,” Mrs. Hager said. The overall winner was the team captained by kindergarten teacher Linda Allen. After losing the top spot to second grade teacher April Hejl’s team several weeks earlier, a late surge in the last week helped give them the victory. One team member said that Allen did a great job of encouraging them every step of the way. Mr. Weed said the main goal has been to help teachers become better leaders physically. “Since we are here to lead the students, we should not just do it spiritually and academi¬cally. We should also be leaders to students in physical health,” he said. |
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