Altadena’s Eliot Middle School Named LA Fitness Champion

Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Chairman Jake Steinfeld announced today that Charles W. Eliot Middle has won the Los Angeles Regional Award in the 2009 Governor’s Challenge for “outstanding efforts to promote fitness for students, parents and teachers.”  Charles Eliot is one of 1,165 schools that competed in the Governor’s Challenge Competition in 2009, and one of 11 schools that have been selected as a Regional Award winner by the Council.   Later this year, a Governor’s Council representative will visit Altadena and present the school with a $5,000 check for physical activity equipment and a $1,000 gift card to a CVS/pharmacy – CVS/pharmacy is the sponsor of the Governor’s Challenge Regional Awards.

This year every Charles Eliot students successfully completed the Governor’s Challenge of being active 30-60 minutes a day, at least 3 days a week for a month.  In fact, most of the school’s students continued to be physically active long after they completed their first Challenge.  “By rising to the Governor’s Challenge and continuing to accept the Challenge every month of the year, the students, parents and teachers at Charles Eliot have demonstrated their commitment to fitness and to their health, confidence and self-esteem.  Way to go Huskies!” said Steinfeld.

In addition to encouraging its school community to be more physically active, the leaders at Charles Eliot have also focused on supporting good nutrition by offering classes that offer nutritional education to the entire student body while collaborating with the Nutrition Network to provide after-school enrichment cooking classes.  In these classes, Eliot’s students acquire nutritional skills needed to change their own eating habits as well as their families.  Principal Peter Pannell remarks, “We promote healthy eating through a back to basics mindset: You are what you eat; eat well to be well.  As a result, Eliot’s’ culture and climate have drastically changed as our eating habits have changed.”

Overall, more than 339,000 students, parents and teachers participated in the 2008-2009 Governor’s Challenge.  Cumulatively, these participants recorded over 5,870,000 days of physical activity – that’s more activity than was recorded through similar fitness challenges in all the other 49 states combined.  Due in large part to the success of the Governor’s Challenge, the California Council was recently named Governor’s Council of the Year by the National Association for Health and Fitness.  “At this time when the nation’s political leaders are wrestling with how to reduce our overwhelming healthcare costs, it’s especially rewarding to be recognized for increasing physical activity levels in California ,” said Steinfeld.  “Exercise is a powerful preventative medicine and the sooner we realize this, as a country, the better off we’ll all be.”

The Grand Prize winning elementary school, middle school and high school in the 2009 Governor’s Challenge Competition will be announced September 16th at the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Spotlight Awards Ceremony.  Also on September 16th, the Governor’s Council expects to launch the 2009/2010 Governor’s Challenge Competition.  The fourth annual contest will once again provide students, parents and teachers with incentives to be physically active and will provide schools the opportunity to compete for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fitness equipment and cash prizes.

The California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting physical activity for all Californians with an emphasis on children and youth. Governor Schwarzenegger is the Honorary Chairman and Council members include Chairman Jake Steinfeld , Vice Chairman Peter Vidmar , and California sports legends such as Tony Hawk, Jerry Rice, Misty May-Treanor, Lisa Leslie, Laila Ali and Julie Foudy . 

Governor’s Council key initiatives include the Governor’s Challenge presented in part by General Mills, the Governor’s Council Spotlight Awards Presented by Anthem Blue Cross Foundation, the Governor’s Council Activity Guide, the Live Like a Champion Tour powered by Anthem Blue Cross and Exercise is Medicine.  Founding sponsors are Anthem Blue Cross Foundation and Kaiser Permanente.  For more information visit www.CalGovCouncil.org.