Elementary school students will have a new opportunity to get active after school starting next week.
The Walking School Bus/after school program from LifeFit Athletics is set to begin Tuesday night. LifeFit’s Owner Laura Sivers says students will be able to walk, with a trained leaders, to St. Lawrence Academy for an after school program in Prescott. The students would be walked from St. Mark and Wellington schools to St. Lawrence Academy. The program will run until 5:30 at St. Lawrence Academy. The program runs every Tuesday for five weeks. Sivers says they wanted to do this because in a ParticipACTION study, it showed more than 70-percent of youth are not meeting daily health targets.
“(The program) is a game based and play based sports program for kids to be active. It’s in partnership with the health unit and the schools to give kids more activity.”
Sivers says the Councilors in the program are all trained in the National Coaching Certification Program on physical literacy and early childhood fundamental movement skills. She explains kids will be able to learn the fundamentals of running, jumping, throwing, kicking and striking.
“They’re learning these motions that happen in every other sport that they’re going to do. So, if they’re out playing with friends, if they decide to try something new, they have these base skills that allow them to do that.”
Sivers adds studies have shown that youth who develop these skills, in the age range between grade three and six, are more likely to stay active throughout their whole life. Sivers says even though right now it’s set up as a five week program, they hope to continue it in the new-year.
Sivers thanks the Town of Prescott for helping make this happen and being so proactive with the dedication to recreation.
The program is six-dollars per night to join and to register a student visit LifeFit’s website here.