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SATURDAY March 27 , 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels March 6, 2004 Kids learn a healthy lifestyle By Tim Bousquet Tidings Correspondent "I want salmon! I want salmon!" chants 14-year-old Chris Pagano, demonstrating what he has learned in the "Be a Fit Kid" after-school program for special-needs children at Ashland Middle School. The other 14 kids in the program are equally rambunctious, roughhousing and screaming on their way around the school track. But they're in good hands: program director Jenny Slawta and five college students shepherd the youngsters through their exercise routine, and each child completes his assigned running distance. "They've made great progress," says Slawta. "Jeff Dimitri, for example, has dropped from a 9:25 mile to a 7:17 mile in just a month. All of the other kids have similar improvements. It was a surprise to all of us, because we didn't know what to expect from the special needs kids. We're impressed." The children in the program have a variety of special needs, ranging from learning disabilities, emotional problems and hyperactivity to mild autism, cerebral palsy and Asperger's disease. Slawta, a physical education instructor at Southern Oregon University, started the Be a Fit Kid program last year in response to the Surgeon General's call for addressing obesity rates and other health issues among American children. Meeting three days a week for two hours, Be a Fit Kid is aimed at improving the students' physical activity and nutritional habits. The kids spend 90 minutes of each session exercising, and the final half -hour learning about basic nutrition. Last year Slawta took the traveling program to three area elementary schools and documented impressive improvements among participating children. "We had no idea how this would go over with the older kids at the middle school," says Slawta. "And no idea how it would work with the special needs kids. But I can say it's exceeding all our expectations, although it will be harder to document because all the kids have different needs." Unhealthy kids The need for health education for children is self-evident, says Slawta. "Heart disease is responsible for 60 percent of all deaths, and most of that is caused by lack of exercise and poor eating habits. Sixty-one percent of adults are overweight, and about half of those are considered obese. And 80 percent of overweight kids go on to be overweight adults." Moreover, Slawta has found that even in health-conscious Ashland schoolchildren are woefully unhealthy. Before starting to work with the students, she gives them a fitness test, a diet analysis, and a body composition test. They then have their cholesterol levels tested, a service donated by the Rogue Valley Medical Center. Fully 36 percent of the children tested had high cholesterol levels when they started the program, and few could meet the exercise standards considered normal by the Surgeon General. To join the program, the students must sign a contract forswearing the drinking of soda, and their parents are required to attend a presentation about the program. "It's hard to initially get the kids excited about exercising, but once they get into it, they're really into it. It's a non-competitive program," Slawta emphasizes. "Each child has their own exercise goals. The goals are all in running, because that's easier to measure in the short term." As the students meet their goals they are given small prizes. "Always something healthy," Slawta says; "a bag of soybeans, or of ten-grain pancake mix, that sort of thing." The prizes come from donations from about two dozen local businesses, mostly fitness centers and organic food providers. Ashland Food Co-op donated $1,000 in food, and Ashland Community Hospital paid for T-shirts for the kids. Health as fun The students clearly enjoy the program. After a half-hour or so on the track, they move into the school's weight room and immediately take to the various machines. Some of the students need one-on-one attention to keep them focused, and one of Slawta's students will work them individually. Others make the rounds by themselves, working the machines expertly. When another gym class arrives to use the equipment, the Be a Fit Kid students move on to a twenty-minute yoga routine led by Joan Smith, a nurse practitioner who received her master's degree studying with Slawta. Ten minutes before, the children were boisterous and loud, but just a couple of minutes into the yoga routine and they're library quiet, stretching to new age music playing on a boom box. "This group clicked right in," says Smith. "The elementary school boys didn't do too well with yoga, but these boys took right to it. I had to skip a day last week, and two of the older boys led the session for me." "It's been interesting to see that the kids with attention deficit disorder take to yoga especially well," she continues. "I'm concerned that the special needs kids might have higher injury rates later in life, and I think that the yoga will make them more flexible and less likely to get injured." After the yoga, the group gathers around Slawta as she spreads humus on pita bread, the healthy treat serving to underscore the nutrition lesson she gave at the start of the program. "But I want salmon!" says 14-year-old Chris again. "We're definitely having salmon next time," says Slawta. "I'll pick some up from the co-op." 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