Body Walk promotes health for area students

Kenneth Billings
The Newton Record

Newton January 27, 2006 04:21 pm

— Newton-area elementary students are helping kick off a statewide health awareness program this week sponsored by the Mississippi State University Extension service in partnership with Newton County 4H, designed to educate young people about the necessity of eating right and exercising.
About 1,500 elementary school students from Newton, Newton County, and Newton Academy elementary schools are expected to take part in Body Walk, an interactive exhibit designed to promote health and physical education to students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
“The exhibit primarily focuses on the functions of the human body,” Body Walk Program Coordinator Lewatis McNeal said. “Students walk through the key components of the human body and have hands-on activities at each station to help them learn how each area functions and how eating effects that.”
The program, he said, is part of an effort to prevent many childhood diseases, especially childhood obesity which is a rapidly increasing problem across the state.
“It helps to get them while they are young,” McNeal said. “We want to teach them the importance of healthy eating and hopefully they will take it home with them.”
Newton County 4H agent Katrina McCalphia said the exhibit fills a vital role in health education for a lot of the kids who will be attending.
“We have encouraged everyone to come and we have had a great response,” McCalphia said. “With more and more kids reaching for candy and soda’s for snacks, children to today need more education about what they are eating and letting them know what eating too much sugar and too much fat does to a body.”
The program will run through Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the National Guard Armory in Newton and is open to all students in the county.

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