Beaumont kids log 250,000 miles in World Fit challenge

Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Thursday, May 27, 2010

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Seventh-grader Chas Brubeck signs his Golden Sneaker Award for logging the most miles at Beaumont Middle School in the World Fit challenge. In the six-week program, Chas tallied a total of 1,185 miles by walking, jogging, running track, playing soccer and jumping on his trampoline.

Seventh-grader Chas Brubeck signs his Golden Sneaker Award for logging the most miles at Beaumont Middle School in the World Fit challenge. In the six-week program, Chas tallied a total of 1,185 miles by walking, jogging, running track, playing soccer and jumping on his trampoline.

Seventh-grader Chas Brubeck signs his Golden Sneaker Award for logging the most miles at Beaumont Middle School in the World Fit challenge. In the six-week program, Chas tallied a total of 1,185 miles by walking, jogging, running track, playing soccer and jumping on his trampoline.Principal Kate McAnelly handed out medals and certificates at the closing ceremony. Beaumont recorded more than 250,000 miles walked -- the most in World Fit's nationwide pilot program.Kids at Beaumont and Winburn received medals for logging a certain number of miles during the six-week fitness challenge.All the participants got a T-shirt, which illustrated the original challenge to walk to London and back.

Beaumont Middle School students recorded 255,529 miles in this spring’s World Fit challenge – tops among the pilot sites across the country. Winburn Middle School was runner-up with 120,871 miles.

 

The six-week program, “World Fit: Olympians for Worldwide Fitness,” encouraged students to get outdoors and exercise at least 45 minutes a day. Their goal was to walk to London and back – site of the 2012 Summer Games – and both schools quickly surpassed that mark.

 

“If you took Beaumont’s miles, we walked past the moon!” Principal Kate McAnelly said before their awards ceremony.

 

Seventh-grader Chas Brubeck, who plays soccer and runs track, earned the Golden Sneaker Award for logging a school-best 1,185 miles.

 

“For the first couple of weeks, I’d run around the track (behind the school) to get in extra miles,” said Chas, who also earned credit for jumping on his trampoline at home.

 

At Winburn, students walked laps as a warm-up for P.E. class and squeezed in a few more after lunch. Kids also tallied additional miles after school and on weekends.

 

“Some days I walked, sometimes I rode my bike. I did mine in my neighborhood,” said sixth-grader Brad Hutsell. “I play a lot of baseball and track and try to balance it out with walking.”

 

Both schools handed out World Fit medals, certificates and T-shirts for various levels of participation. The certificates urged kids to “Have Fun! Stay Active! And Keep Fit for Life!”

 

“If you walked every day for six weeks, that’s a great way to start a habit,” said Lora Browning, the physical education teacher at Beaumont.

 

McAnelly said in addition to the health benefits, she noticed improved student behavior.

 

“They were able to release some energy while on their walks and socialize before coming back to class,” she said.

 

During the challenge, Beaumont set aside 20 minutes twice a day for students to go outside and walk the track. Teachers accompanied them, and one noticed a marked improvement in his blood pressure.

 

World Fit made a big impact, as Chas said, “A lot of people learned how important it is to be physically active.”

 

 

Archived feature: Olympic sprinter Tyson Gay and gold medal diver Micki King visited Beaumont and Winburn in early April to kick off the World Fit program, which targets childhood obesity.

 

Article in USA TODAY (from May 24, 2010)