Broncos and Fit One Team Up To Help Kids
How the Boise State Broncos are spending their off season helping Treasure Valley Kids.
Boise State Football players will join the St. Luke's FitOne Kids team Wednesday to get students at Garfield Elementary School moving and excited about being healthy.
The event is part of "Let's Move Boise" and its new "Kid City" after-school program. Local organizations are invited to provide activities and healthy food for children who might not otherwise have extracurricular opportunities in an effort to help combat childhood obesity.
For several weeks, the FitOne Kids team has led children in physical games like hula hoop tic-tac-toe, human hungry hippos, or who can act the silliest. FitOne aims to show the kids physical activity is not only good for their health, but fun, and encouraged them to try the games at home instead of spending time in front of a TV screen.
"The goal for St. Luke's FitOne Kids is to teach kids to get active and live a healthy lifestyle," said new FitOne Executive Director Eric Stride. "Garfield Elementary, Boise State Football and FitOne Kids is the perfect partnership to teach kids in our community to move for fun, and get fit for life!"
The Let's Move Community Center was launched in 2015, and expanded this year. It provides free after-school activities for children in grades 1-6 at Garfield, a Title 1 and Community Eligibility Provision School which serves breakfast and lunch to 90% of its students at no cost. Boise Parks & Recreation, the Boise Schools Education Foundation, St. Luke's, United Way and Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health each provided $5,000 to fund the launch of the new program.
About 60 children per day attend the after-school program at Garfield, which is the seventh operated by Boise Parks & Recreation.
Recent studies indicate low-income families, like those at Garfield, are unable to afford organized sports. By partnering on-site with organizations like St. Luke's FitOne, the Idaho Tennis Association, Girls on the Run, Warm Springs and Quail Hollow golf courses, and Boise Park & Recreation's Mobile Recreation program, students are able to experience team and individual sports, and hopefully develop a love and appreciation of being active.