How many steps do you take in a day? Clarkston third and fourth graders are counting to find out for an important lesson issued by Oakland County executive L. Brooks Patterson.
‘The idea is get kids off the couch and walking for a half hour,? Patterson said.
Patterson recently spoke to the Clarkston Optimist Club at their April 7 meeting to promote ‘Count Your Steps? and update members on the students? progress.
The idea stemmed from a recent health retreat in which Patterson heard the startling facts on current obesity trends, especially those developing in children due to fatty diets and a lack of daily activity.
Patterson came back to Oakland County and developed the idea for the five-week program to get third and fourth grade students up and moving. He approached four corporate sponsors and asked for $55,000 each to purchase 29,000 pedometers for participating students.
As of April 12, nearly 1,200 classes in Oakland County had signed up, totalling more than 28,000 third and fourth graders.
All of Clarkston’s third and fourth grade classes agreed to participate. In a press release issued on April 12, Springfield Plains Elementary School was in the top three of fourth grade classrooms for best results during the first week of participation.
‘This little lifestyle change will have a huge impact on life,? Patterson said.
Students record the number of steps they take each day and submit them to their teacher. Weekly logs are submitted to the program and compared against other classes in hopes of winning prizes, such as brand new bikes.
‘I haven’t gotten on the treadmill yet this morning, so I won’t tell you mine,? Patterson joked with Optimist members.
Not only are students encouraged to increase the number of steps in a given day, but emphasis has been placed on adapting healthier lifestyles.
Each participating student received a log book with healthy snack ideas. Instead of french fries, students were suggested to try a baked potato.
‘They’re (today’s children) running the risk of not outliving their parents,? Patterson said.
Kayla Mick, a student at Bailey Lake Elementary, was an eager participant.
‘We do competitions at school and see how many steps we have at the end of the day,? Mick said.
With 1,078 steps, fellow classmate Shay Kostin had his own approach to getting as many steps in as possible.
‘I just try to move a lot,? Kostin said.