Fitness is Fun!
March 2006

PCPFS 50 Year Celebration
The PCPFS Council members, Science Board, and staff are getting ready for 2006, the 50 year celebration of the creation of the PCPFS, originally known as President's Council on Youth Fitness. We encourage national, state, local, private and public organizations, industry, volunteer groups to join us in highlighting the benefits of a fit and active lifestyle and all of the great model programs at the grassroots level! This is a great opportunity for the PCPFS to highlight all of your accomplishment. A special seal has been developed for this celebration and is available for all schools, businesses, and organizations to use. A fact sheet on becoming a partner can be viewed at http://www.presidentschallenge.org/misc/news_research/announcements/pcpfs50.pdf. If you'd like to find out more, please don't hesitate to call Chris Spain at the President's Council Physical Fitness and Sports 202-690-9000.

General Mills Grants for PALA Awards
A unique partnership between the President's Challenge and General Mills Community Action is allowing eligible schools to receive free Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) emblems and certificates for eligible students at their school. Through the General Mills Champions for Healthy Kids program, General Mills Community Action will provide Presidential recognition to eligible low socioeconomic status schools (up to 25,000 students) and the President's Challenge will list the school on our Web site, http://www.presidentschallenge.com/ as a "General Mills Challenge School." In order to be eligible for the awards, students must meet the PALA requirements of being physically active 60 minutes per day, five days a week for six weeks. Also, if 35% of the student population earns the PALA award two or more times during the school year, the school will automatically earn the distinction of becoming a President's Challenge Active Lifestyle Model School. If you are a low socioeconomic status school, fill out the application at http://www.presidentschallenge.org/advocates/gen_mills_sponsorform.pdfand send it in to the President's Challenge office.

President's Challenge Introduces New Materials
In conjunction with the 50 year celebration of the PCPFS, The President's Challenge is offering award certificates proudly displaying the Council's 50th anniversary logo. The certificates will be available through 2006 and will be sent in place of certificates bearing the normal logo unless otherwise specified.

The President's Challenge has also produced an adult version of the educational and instructional booklet 'Get Fit.' The guide, titled 'Stay Active and Be Fit! A Guide to Fitness and Activity Fundamentals,' encompasses topics such as effective goal-setting, getting started, and flexibility and strength training workouts. The guide can be purchased from The President's Challenge by ordering online at http://www.presidentschallenge.org or calling 1-800-258-8146, or downloaded from the Web site at http://www.presidentschallenge.org/pdf/getfit.pdf

PEP Grant Application Now Available
The Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) grant competition for Fiscal Year 2006 is now open. Applications are now available at the Department of Education’s Web site: http://www.ed.gov/programs/whitephysed/applicant.html

Obesity Prevention Toolkit for Girls and Their Families
The Office on Women's Health (OWH) has developed the Body Works Toolkit for Obesity Prevention in Girls and their Families. This program consists of 9 sessions for parents/caregivers. It focuses on action steps and provides information on ways to change how the family eats, shops, cooks and moves. The goal is to help families improve their lifestyles to prevent overweight and obesity. The program is a train the trainer model and will require all those who want to use it to have someone in their organization trained in using the kit. The kit contains a video on healthy shopping and cooking, a recipe book, weekly meal planner, and food and fitness journals as well as magazine-like books with information and action steps for the parent/caregiver and for the daughter. If you're interested in being trained to be a BodyWorks toolkit facilitator, please e-mail bodyworks@hagersharp.com or call Dr. Jonelle Rowe at 202-205-2373.

Active Living Research Call for Proposals - Round 6
Active Living Research is a $12.5 million national program to stimulate and support research that will identify environmental factors and policies that influence physical activity. Findings are expected to inform environmental and policy changes that will promote active living among Americans, both young and old.

This research will help increase our understanding of the relationship of environmental characteristics to physical activity for three priority topics: young people's use of parks, physical activity in and around buildings, and physical activity in rural areas. Evaluations of community interventions that are part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Active Living by Design program also will be supported. The research funded under this call for proposals will inform the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's efforts to help halt the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity by 2015. For more details including how to apply, please visit http://www.rwjf.org/applications/solicited/cfp.jsp?ID=19317.

Medical Fitness Week National Walking Challenge
The Medical Fitness Association (MFA), in conjunction with the MFA Education Committee, is sponsoring the Second Annual Medical Fitness Week, April 24-30, 2006. The goal of this MFA initiative is to promote an increase in physical activity levels in all ages and to highlight the medical fitness difference. The Walking Challenge encourages local communities to get up and move by striving for 70,000 steps in seven days. The challenge will involve wearing a pedometer and tracking how many steps a day a person is achieving. The community who achieves the most steps in the seven days will receive national recognition through press releases, the MFA website, and the 2006 Annual Conference in Las Vegas. For more information, including how to register, visit http://www.medicalfitness.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=40.

PCPFS Welcomes NATA as Science Partner
The National Athletic Trainers' Association joins ACSM and the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a PCPFS Science Partner, providing expert guidance and insight into health and fitness issues.

UPCOMING EVENTS