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Mercy Children’s Hospital has awarded Imagination Station a sponsorship that will offer an opportunity for more than 2,000 third-grade students enrolled in Oregon City Schools, Toledo Catholic Diocese schools, Rosa Parks Elementary School, Sherman Elementary, Old West End Academy and Bedford Public Schools.
After a short demonstration about calorie consumption using cheese puffs and Total cereal, Lori Hauser, executive director of the science center addressed the crowd, including a group of third-graders from Rosary Cathedral, followed by comments from Dr. John Schaeufele, president of Mercy Children’s Hospital; Andrea Price, president and CEO of Mercy, and Sen. Teresa Fedor.
“With 30.4 percent of Ohio children considered overweight or obese according to BMI-for-age standards, this partnership with Mercy Children’s Hospital affords us an opportunity to expose thousands of local kids to vital health education at a young and impressionable age,” Hauser said.
As presenting sponsor of the Mercy Kids Move program, Mercy Children’s Hospital has “adopted” students and teachers for a concentrated program to prevent childhood obesity for elementary school kids in the region. “As the leading provider of healthcare services in Northwest Ohio, Mercy is keenly aware of the responsibility we have,” Price said. “Mercy Kids Move is a targeted and thoughtful approach to teaching our children how to adopt healthy habits in eating, exercise and personal safety.”
The program will provide field trips to the science center for the third-grade students attending the participating school systems in the 2010-11 school year. Additionally, Imagination Station will deliver Healthy Habits WOWs (Workshops on Wheels) to 30 classrooms in the Mercy program.
The Healthy Habits WOW uses hands-on activities specially created to explore nutrition and associated positives and negatives. Using a calorie fountain, students can develop a better understanding of food consumption and calories. A special heart pump shows the strain of pumping blood through the unhealthy heart.
The goal is to empower the students to make healthy choices by setting goals and taking steps to reach those goals.
Teachers will take an active role in the partnership by participating in pre-field trip visits called Prep4Ed, which enables them to become familiar with the science center and the exhibits, and ask questions about the visit or the science concepts being covered. Teachers will receive a Healthy Habits curriculum guide, pre- and post-classroom activities and outlines of Ohio and Michigan academic standards and benchmarks.
Additionally, Mercy representatives will issue a walking challenge to all adopted students during the program. At its culmination, those students and their families that complete the challenge successfully will be invited to attend a special party at Imagination Station to celebrate the completion of the program.
Any parent, teacher or student interested in learning more about healthy habits may register to receive wellness tips, delicious and healthy recipes and more at www.mercyweb.org/kidsmove.
Imagination Station, located on the downtown Toledo riverfront, is a science center dedicated to delivering science and technology based programming to youth and their families throughout Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.
Mercy Children’s Hospital is a member of Mercy, a not for profit health system in Northwest Ohio, dedicated to improving the health of people in its communities with emphasis on its 155-year mission of caring for all in need.
Imagination Station's Gizmo, Lori Hauser, Dr. John Schaeufele, Andrea Price, Sen. Teresa Fedor and Hugs the Hippo from Mercy Health Partners were on hand for the announcement about the Mercy Kids Move initiative designed to expose area youths to vital health education.
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