A super active school!

By Ken Johnston
Editor

Thursday afternoon Riverview School was thrilled to find out it had achieved the highest honour possible from the Ontario Active Schools Program.
Local Health Unit representative Heidi Ivall attended an end of year assembly at the school and announced that they had been recognized as a Super Active School.
Active Schools is a Provincial Program that is designed to a) recognize schools for the great things they are doing in physical activity, and b) to motivate school communities to adopt, implement and maintain physical activity programs.
There are 6 levels of Active Schools Awards of which Riverview has now achieved the highest.
Riverview School in partnership with the Northwestern Health Unit and OPHEA (The Ontario Physical and Health Education Association) is committed to promoting healthy active lives.
Why is this important?
· 40% of Canadian children already have at least one risk factor for heart-disease—reduced fitness due to an inactive lifestyle.
·One-quarter of Canadian children are overweight and that proportion has been increasing.
·Physical activity improves self-esteem, enhances psychological well-being, overcomes boredom and provides positive leisure pursuits.
Ivall said that the Healthy Communities Coalition was instrumental in encouraging area schools to participate in the program. They also offered prizes for schools that were very active. The prizes served as catalysts for even more activity; being that they were things like sports equipment. HCC also sponsored free skating, gave recess equipment and busy boxes.
Now Riverview will be encouraged to go on a maintenance program and stay “super active!”