by Max De Liberato
Last Friday, residents throughout Essex County got their feet on the ground to participate in one of the community walks, hosted in 15 different locations, in recognition of InMotion week.
The walks were 20-minute health promotional events created to engage community members in living an active lifestyle. The event has been going on for 12-years, it is a collaboration between all of the municipalities in Essex County.
“It’s an opportunity for us to engage our immediate community and inform them of the different opportunities to get active, fit, and in motion that are available to them.” Cynthia Cakebread said, who was a community organizer of the InMotion walks and is Essex’s Manager of Recreation and Culture.
Essex Public School was one of the locations for the InMotion walk across the County last week.
“We want to be able to show them how easy it is to get active, to go out and do a 10-minute walk and it’s fun and going with a group of your friends and that’s why we chose the school,” Cakebread said. “It’s a chance for us to show them it’s an easy thing to do, to get them out of their homes.”
In recent years, the Greater Essex County District School Board has added a new subsection to their School Improvement Plan for Student Achievement, this subsection is well-being.
The well-being plan is broken into four categories: Sleep, nutrition, physical activity, and electronic responsibility. These four categories are four areas schools in the district work on educating students in. From providing healthy snacks to mandated daily physical activity. The daily physical activity is broken down into two, 50-minute physical education classes and three, 20-minute D.P.A. (or daily physical activities) a week, according to Bruno Pallotto, Principal of Essex Public School.
“Part of it is raising a child that is well-balanced, understands that their personal choices affect their body.” Pallotto said.
The school is actively trying to empower children to achieve their best potential, the belief according to Pallotto, is that the children’s children, the parents’ grandchildren, will be raised in a manner that empowers them.
“It’s the whole philosophy of we’re partners in education with parents and now we’re also bringing in the Town of Essex.” Pallotto said. “We’re all giving that same message, we want you to incorporate this into your life, we know that physical activity, nutrition, eating well has so many positive benefits.”
The positive benefits include combating disease, improves mood, and boosting energy, according to healthline.com
The students will partake in the couch potato pledge, a pledge promising to live a lifestyle that is active and in motion.
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