By Associated Press
Lexington, KY – A southeastern Kentucky school district is watching the steps of all fourth- and fifth-graders.
More than 500 students in Clay County schools will get a pedometer to track how many steps they take as part of a fitness program aimed at creating healthier students.
Clay County school system instructional supervisor Deann Allen told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the goal is to motivate students to be more physically active in a county where one research project found that 47 percent of children were overweight or obese.
"We want to see some changes," Allen said.
The program is a collaboration of the school system, Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville and Manchester Memorial Hospital. Clay County is the first rural county in Kentucky to take part.
Kosair is providing the pedometers, which will cost about $15,000 total, said Therese Sirles, director of child advocacy at the hospital.
Kosair started a similar program last year with about 600 students in Louisville. Sirles said the Louisville program has had some successes, but officials want to see how it would work in a rural area.
Local leaders are passionate about the community and about helping kids, which was a key reason Kosair selected Clay County for the pilot program, Sirles said.
Kentucky has some of the highest rates in the nation of obesity and related health problems such as diabetes and heart disease, and the percentage of overweight and obese people in Clay County is greater than the state as a whole by some measures.
Kosair collected weight and body-mass index readings from the students in Louisville this school year and will measure them again at the end of the year to see whether they've improved. The hospital and health department in Clay County will assess students as part of the program, Allen said.
The data from the pedometers can be downloaded into computers to keep track of students' progress.
Along with prizes for winning challenges, students will also get awards for writing essays, Allen said.
"We're all going to be winners because we're all going to feel healthier," Allen said.
The prizes will be activity-based, such as balls, and the reward parties will feature frozen yogurt and fruit, Allen said.
State Sen. Robert Stivers, a Republican from Manchester, helped bring the program to his hometown after he saw a presentation by Kosair. Stivers said he also hopes to lead by example. He lost 13 pounds over the holidays last year by getting more active, he said.
"If you're going to ask other people to do it, you've got to do it yourself," Stivers said.
Sirles said Kosair will start another pedometer pilot in Owensboro later this year.
If the data show the program will work in Clay County and other rural areas, that would help the hospital seek money to expand it, she said.
"I am hoping that it will just be a huge success," she said.