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For 30 years, GoodBodies has been helping children in the Midlands have healthier lives
September 16, 2010
Participants in the Arnold School’s
winning video are, from top,
Rebecca Cuevas, Grant Burdette
and Brooks Burdette.
The Arnold School of Public Health’s GoodBodies Program is the winner of a national video competition created to help children learn to make healthy food and activity choices.
The GoodBodies entry, titled “We Can MOVE IT,” was one of the nine videos in a recent competition sponsored by We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition)®, a program of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The winning video – at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vI2xAMykbM – was selected by votes from viewers who were required to have Facebook pages. The video was filmed by Rachel Hardy, an advisor in the Department of Exercise Science.
The We Can! program stresses three behavioral goals: increasing physical activity, reducing screen time (time spent in front of computers, TV and video games) and eating healthier, said Samantha Brewer, who scripted the minute-long video filmed at USC’s Blatt Physical Education Center.
“We decided that we’d stress physical activity in our video,” said Brewer, who appears on screen along with three youngsters: siblings Brooks and Grant Burdette and Rebecca Cuevas, the daughter of GoodBodies program coordinator Barbara Cuervas.
“To see our hard work being recognized is very exciting,” said Cuevas, who worked with the GoodBodies program as an undergraduate student and as a coordinator since the summer of 2007. “And to have GoodBodies recognized by a program of the National Institutes of Health is gratifying.”
The announcement of the winning video coincides with a Presidential proclamation that September be recognized as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, Cuevas said.
According to the NIH, the rise in childhood obesity over the past 30 years has been staggering, with prevalence rates that have doubled among children ages 2–5, tripled among youth ages 6–11, and more than tripled among adolescents ages 12–19.
The GoodBodies Program has been providing weight management services to children, teens, and their families in the greater Columbia area for 30 years. The program was created in 1980 by Dr. Dianne Ward, a former Arnold School faculty member. Dr. Harriet Williams, a professor in the Department of Exercise Science, is director of GoodBodies.
The national We Can! team announced the video contest winner on Sept. 8. The Arnold School will receive $1,500 to use for their We Can! programming. The school’s GoodBodies program will be featured — along with the winning video — in the upcoming We Can! in Action Fall eNewsletter.
And mark your calendars: You can “Go Golfing for GoodBodies” on Friday, Oct. 1. The Richland County Recreation Foundation is sponsoring the golf tournament to help combat childhood obesity. The event will be held at the LinRick Golf Course, located at 356 Campground Road, beginning at 7:30 a.m., with a tee time at 8:30 a.m. (shotgun start). The cost is $60 per person or $240 per foursome. The cost includes green fees, cart rental, lunch, prizes and refreshments. For more information, contact Lee Allyson Gailliard at 803-462-0064 or email lee@rcrc.state.sc.us.
