The Winston County Journal

Noxapater Attendance Center has received a grant to implement programs aimed at improving fitness and nutrition for students and the community.

The school will use the funding for many separate but conjoined projects to address concerns about overall wellness in the school and community.

The programs include a health fair for the school and community held this past week with future plans aimed at instituting a FitnessGram assessment, taking healthy curriculums into the classroom, introducing a family fitness fun night, and other projects for increasing not only the students' health but also that of the community as a whole.

"We are trying to focus on healthier children and a healthier community," said Carrie McCool, who is heading up the grand project for the school.

McCool explained how the FitnessGram program and other projects would aid the school and community.

McCool noted that the FitnessGram assessment is an initiative to measure the overall health of the students with tests on flexibility, strength and body composition through a series of 20 exercises. The test will be given prior to and following the introduction of the new health programs with the hope of seeing improvement in the students' overall health.

The programs are all in line with a new district policy on wellness that was implemented this year by the district and state, according to McCool.That policy calls for educating students about the importance of nutrition, lifelong physical activity and introduction of healthier snacks and drinks into school vending machines.

"As a school district, we believe it is our role to educate, and we want to teach our students about wellness," said McCool.

The grant funding will enable them to provide that education to students in all grades, and to adults, as well.

"We're reaching elementary, middle school and high school students and the community. That was one of our goals," said McCool. "We want to encourage healthy eating and exercise for everybody."

McCool said the dates for the new program's implementation were still tentative but the community health fair held last Wednesday was an excellent start for the programs.

"This is a great kick off involving not only students but the community," said McCool who added that all the teachers and staff had really pitched in to get the program off to a great start.

Noxapater was one of twenty schools to receive such a grant. The four-hour health fair had over 60 attendees in the first two hours and seven groups on hand with healthy lifestyle information. The Lions' Club provided an eyesight testing, the Mississippi State University Extension Service had several displays on general health, the Noxapater School staff provided a hearing screening, Sta-Home Hospice gave blood pressure tests, Winston Medical Center provided flu shots and cholestrol testing while Winston Rehab gave flexibility and balance tests.