Pelham Road Elementary School Wins Stay Active! Summer Challenge

Walkabouts is thrilled to announce the grand prize winner of the first annual Stay Active! Summer Challenge. Yesterday morning, Dr. Julian Reed had the honor of meeting with Principal Qualls and Coach Hobbs of Pelham Road Elementary School to present $1000 to be used on PE equipment.

Under the guidance of Coach Hobbs, Pelham Road Elementary had the largest number of participating students in the Stay Active! Summer challenge. In addition to the grand prize check, each child also received a personalized certificate of achievement and a t-shirt to acknowledge their success.

Children from around the country participated in this challenge, completing an activity checklist to ensure a certain amount of physical activity every day over the summer. After the checklist was completed, a parent or teacher sent it in as proof of their commitment to the challenge. As a prize, students will soon receive their own certificates and t-shirts in the mail.

We ran this campaign over the summer to instill the importance of movement in children,” says Dr. Julian Reed, founder of Walkabouts. “We will send them a t-shirt and certificate, but the true rewards are the health and learning benefits of an active lifestyle.

The added benefit of a checklist also helped teach a level of accountability for children and a sense of accomplishment when they stuck to the task at hand. One father of a participating child says of the challenge, “My son definitely needed some accountability this summer, and the checklist did it!”

Activities on the checklist included:

• Sports such as soccer, basketball, baseball/softball, swimming, tennis
• Running, hiking, walking, marching, galloping, skipping
• Exercises such as jumping jacks, sit ups, push ups, squats, lunges, bicep curls
• Creative movement such as dancing, yoga, stretching, spinning
• Drawing letters, numbers, and pictures in the air with your finger or with your body
• Quick movements in place such as fast feet, high knees, hopping, jumping rope

Walkabouts founders Dr. Reed and Matt Ferebee are thrilled with the positive results of the summer challenge and send a big congratulations to all participants.