Sierra Cascade
Regional Award Winner
Regional Award Winner
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Willows Intermediate submitted the following three essays for consideration towards Governor's Challenge Competition Prizes: School’s Commitment to Promoting Healthy Eating on Campus: At Willows Intermediate School (WIS), staff and students know that nutrition has a positive influence on one’s behavior, academic performance, and overall health. Therefore, both staff and students cooperated to promote healthy eating in several ways. The teachers encouraged a healthy mid-morning snack, participated in nutrition programs, and lead by role modeling. Our administrators advocated nutrition during lunch and supported every nutrition-related venture. The school nurse wrote nutrition messages in the bulletin and discussed nutrition one-on-one with students. Our partnership with the Sierra Cascade Nutrition and Activity Consortium (SCNAC) allowed us to participate in the Harvest of the Month program. Each month, this program provided the students with a seasonal fruit or vegetable sample and a workbook that helped them integrate the information. Through SCNAC, WIS also provided the students with a monthly nutrition page for the school newsletter, nutrition books and videos for the library, and healthy snack-making demonstrations and food sampling. Furthermore, WIS distributed other items with nutrition messages from SCNAC such as posters, pencils, pens, erasers, journals, reusable bags, and t-shirts. For the past five years, the students of the WIS Nutrition Club have inspired other students to eat well through their performances as the Fruit & Veggie Bunch. The Fruit & Veggie Bunch is a student group of costumed fruit and vegetable characters. They promoted healthy eating and other healthy habits through song, dance, and dialogue. They performed during school wide assemblies at numerous schools in Glenn, Butte, and Tehama counties. The Nutrition Club also promoted nutrition by hosting health food parties, holding weekly club meetings, and creating nutrition artwork. These students have planted and maintained our school garden, now in its second year. Healthy eating is on the conscious minds of WIS staff and students more and more thanks to nutrition-related promotions! School’s Support of its Students Physical Activity & Fitness: This school year, Willows Intermediate School (WIS) accumulated 66,886 student active days, averaging about 24 per student, and 11,101 adult active days. Physical activity awareness and opportunities have grown since the school has participated in the Governor’s Fitness Challenge. Teachers included movement breaks that students performed at their desks. Jumping jacks, crossover exercises, and running in place are some examples. Some kids went outside to run the track or play quick games. Teachers and students also took advantage of the campus disc golf course, and played lengthier games of softball, kickball, soccer, and basketball on certain afternoons and during STAR testing weeks. At lunch, teachers operated the Lunchtime Exercise and Activities Program (LEAP). Activities are coordinated and supervised so that exercise is cooperative and respectful. Two teachers created a program called River Jim’s Adventure Education. This program brought students to nature for safe canoeing and camping trips. Students cooperated and made new connections. The After School Activities Program (ASAP) provided many exercise options. The ASAP supervisors played with the students. Teachers also played basketball, volleyball, softball, and soccer with ASAP students. These enjoyable experiences strengthened relationships between staff and students! The Nutrition Club planted a garden that produced numerous strawberries and will provide tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, raspberries, blackberries, and melons. Teachers and students maintained this garden together. Some students traveled to several other schools and dressed up as fruit and vegetable characters at school wide assemblies. Known as the Fruit and Veggie Bunch, this group emphasized eating healthy and living actively. Teachers took students on field trips to water slide parks, roller skating rinks, held school dances, and opened the gym every morning for students to play basketball. A poster collage was made to remind us of the fun ways that we can exercise! School's Need for a New Fitness Center: Participating in the Governor’s Fitness Challenge has certainly benefited Willows Intermediate School. Winning the Front Runner Award the past two years has enabled the purchasing, in this time of budget cuts, of much needed athletic equipment as well as pay for other exercise promoting programs. A new fitness center won’t be in the budget any time soon. If WIS were to win the big prize, the staff and students would be excited to make good use of a new fitness center before, during, and after school! Sixty-five percent of the school’s families are low income and qualify for free or reduced breakfast and lunch. Per capita income in Willows is around $15,000, while the per capita income in California is about $28,000. According to the California Center for Public Advocacy, overweight and obesity rates in Glenn County, the county in which Willows resides, are higher than California state numbers. Low income families typically do not get out of town much and depend on what Willows has to offer them. In Willows, there are few places for youth to exercise. Some kids turn to gangs and other deviant activities. A new fitness center would be extended to the community and utilized during nonschool hours. At this point, the gym is sometimes used for "pick-up" basketball and other activities on weekends and breaks. Being awarded a retrofitted fitness area would allow us to expand the possibilities. There is one health club in Willows, but that is another expense that most of our families cannot afford. WIS is always on the lookout for new ways to motivate the kids as well as the community to be active. A new fitness center would empower WIS to do more, inspire the students to move more, and extend a helping hand to the community. |
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