October 4, 2007

Get moving!

Worldwide Day of Play celebrates healthy lifestyles

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

Jump! Run! Play! The message was obvious at the Worldwide Day of Play celebrated at the Almaden Com-munity Center on Saturday, Sept. 9.

District 10 Councilmember Nancy Pyle passes out jump ropes from Kaiser Permanente to the kids attending Get Out and Play Day. Photos by Jeanne Carbone Lewis

“We are here to celebrate play,” said District 10 Councilmember Nancy Pyle. “Today is the fourth annual Worldwide Day of Play and San Jose’s first. When you go outside and play, you help fight childhood obesity and have great fun.”

The Day of Play was sponsored by KaBOOM!, a community-based playground building organization, and Nickelodeon, the cable television channel that went “dark” for three hours. The day marked the fourth annual event for Nickelodeon to inspire kids to participate in the fight against childhood obesity.

The “Let’s Just Play Go Healthy Challenge” was created by Nickelodeon, in partnership with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association. The program aims to empower kids to change the outcome of their generation and to adopt a healthy lifestyle with plans for better diet and exercise.

“For several years, Parks [and Recreation] has been involved on a citywide level,” said Almaden Library Branch Manager Pam Crider. “The library is focusing on health and fitness. There are lots of resources, books, videos for kids to focus on activities that don’t take a lot of equipment. We’re really excited about this event, and hope it’s the first of many.”

The event was full of excitement. Kids shot hoops with the Skyhawks Sports, hula-hooped, exercised their minds by listening to readings about fun activities by Ed Koetitz from the Almaden Branch Library and jumped rope with ropes provided by Kaiser Permanente.

Eight-year-old Joshua and his dad Jeff Rascov demonstrate all the right moves at Get Out and Play Day. The father-and-son team take family karate classes at the Almaden Community Center.

The kids were eager to fill up their passports to fun and win a prize. There was even entertainment as Sensei James Carter from Camp Carter International demonstrated martial arts with students Jeff and Joshua Rascov.

The father-son team attends Carter’s family karate lessons at the Almaden Community Center.

“This is a message to parents regarding childhood obesity,” said Kaiser Perma-nente Community and Government Relations Manager Lisa Jafferies. “It’s easy to make a difference. Parents are the gatekeepers for care of their children. And you don’t need organized sports for exercise. Jump rope; shoot hoops, hula hoop, walk—it’s that easy.”

During the past 20 years, childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled among adolescents and more than doubled among children ages 6 to 11. There is an estimated 9 million children nationwide who are overweight or obese. In San Jose, children who are overweight in grades five, seven and nine in 2004 were estimated at 28.4 to 32.6 percent. The rising number in childhood obesity is believed to be resulting in increased Type 2 diabetes in children.

Librarian Ed Koetitz, right, reads activity books during Get Out and Play Day held at the Almaden Community Center to Johnny Awad, Brandon Kim and Justin Kim.

Once a rarity, Type 2 diabetes has risen from less that 5 percent in 1994 to 30 to 50 percent in subsequent years, according to the National Institutes of Health. Obesity, which says the major factors are sedentary, fast-food-driven lifestyles. The leading causes of childhood obesity are a diet of processed foods, fast food, super-sized portions, sugars and refined flours coupled with irregular meal patterns. The inactivity in today’s youth is attributed to the electronic media, less physical activity in school, declining activity after school and riding everywhere instead of walking.

Children aged 2 to 6 require an accumulation of more than 60 minutes of activity and up to several hours a day of developmentally appropriate exercise. Some activity each day should be in periods lasting 10 to-15 minutes or more and include moderate to vigorous activity.

Older children and teens need physical activity 60 minutes and up to several hours every day of play, games, sports, work, recreation, physical education or planned exercise. Teens should engage in at least three sessions of exercise per week that requires moderate or vigorous exertion.

But on Saturday, it was all about being kids playing and having fun at the Get Out and Play Day. And by the looks on the kids’ faces as they jumped rope, hula-hooped, and shot baskets, they want to play every day.