Kansas Kids fitness Day for area third graders

  PSU
  Wednesday, May 2, 2012 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

About 700 third graders from Crawford and Cherokee counties will run, jump, stretch and generally have a ball on Friday, May 4, in an annual event designed to encourage lifetimes of physical activity. Pittsburg State University will host Kansas Kids’ Fitness Day from 10-11:45 a.m. at the Weede Physical Education Building.

Shelly Grimes, an instructor in the Department of Health, Human Performance and Recreation, coordinates the event.

“The way we live the first one-third of our lives often determines how we live the last one-third of our lives, such as increased chance of heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome,” Grimes said. “It’s important that kids realize they need to have daily physical activity if they want to be healthy adults and eventually, healthy seniors.”

Students who participate in Kansas Kids’ Fitness Day will rotate among a number of physical activities including karate, dance, basketball and relay races. Each station will be led by a PSU physical education major.

Grimes said she expects students from 13 schools in the two counties to participate.

Kansas Kids’ Fitness Day is a statewide project of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, sponsored by the Governor’s Council on Fitness, on the first Friday each May. Nearly 40,000 students are expected to participate at 40 sites across the state this spring. For more, visit the Kansas Kids’ Fitness Day website at http://www.kdheks.gov/kkfd