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Grant helps Woodbridge High encourage healthy lifestyle for students

Delaware Public Media
A $12,500 American Lung Association grant is helping Bayhealth’s Wellness Center at Woodbridge High School staff make exercising fun for students there. ";

Woodbridge High School in Greenwood is getting a grant from the American Lung Association.

 

The $12,500 grant aims to help the school’s wellness center make exercising fun for students.

Joanna White is a nurse practitioner and coordinator for the Wellness Center at Woodbridge. She says it’s part of a shift in the Lung Association’s focus with these grants.

“And in the past they’ve always focused on anti-tobacco messaging and programs. But recently they added PANO, which is physical activity, nutrition and obesity prevention. And it’s actually estimated that 30% of 10 to 17-year-olds in Delaware are overweight or obese,” said White.

White says the district used part of the funding to purchase 600 pairs of earbuds, which are given to students to encourage them to do physical activity every day.

Along with the earbuds, White says they also bought uniform appropriate polo shirts for every student in the school.

 

White says the funding also paid for other projects.

“Our biggest project was a lift-up video, with a theme of “Be A Part...Don’t Start.” And it focused on all the sports and clubs and extracurricular activities that students are a part of at Woodbridge. And that’s hopefully preventing them from starting unhealthy habits like smoking and being sedentary, that kind of thing. The video turned out great," White said.

 

You can view that video here.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages students to exercise for 30 minutes a day, with a goal of working up to 60 minutes of exercise per day.

 

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.