Launching Heroes for Healthy Schools Week with an Active Start

Cornell McClellan, President Obama’s personal trainer and a member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, with McAuliffe Elemantary students who helped launch Heroes for Healthy Schools week with stories of how school health initiatives have affected their lives.

We were so excited this morning to launch Heroes for Healthy Schools: Coming Together for Student Wellness and Achievement, with such an energetic and impressive group of local and national leaders!

This launch kicked off a weeklong series of events that HSC is hosting with the Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to recognize Minority Health Month and focus attention on the role everyone can play in ensuring that all children are able to succeed in school and live healthy lives.

We have been recognizing unsung “heroes for healthy schools” on this blog and today were joined by some more remarkable individuals working to make wellness a part of every child’s school experience. We heard from:

•  Dr. Garth Graham, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who reflected on the important role schools play in the context of the stark health disparities our nation faces;
• Ollice Holden, Regional Administrator, U.S. Department of Agriculture, who commended Chicago Public Schools on supporting schools in meeting the HealthierUS School Challenge through the Go for the Gold campaign;
• Clare Muñana, Vice President, Chicago Public Schools Board of Education, who announced that CPS recently added a health and wellness goal to the school improvement planning and reporting system for all schools, fundamentally changing the definition of school success to include wellness; and
• David Pino, Principal of McAuliffe School, who shared several of wellness initiatives at McAuliffe and introduced two students who talked about the impact these initiatives have had on their health and learning.

Cornell McClellan, President Obama’s personal trainer and a key member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, commended McAuliffe for taking on the President’s fitness challenge, then headed to the school’s gym to lead more than 100 students in a workout!

Sen. Dick Durbin joined Cornell in urging the students to make physical activity a daily part of their lives.

Thanks to everyone who made this morning’s kick-off such a success. We invite you to learn more about Heroes for Healthy Schools week online!