Got Ruskin Fit! Ruskin Elementary is the Bay Area Regional Fitness Champion in the 2010 Governor's Challenge Competition!

For Immediate Release (2 pages)
September 13, 2010

Contact: Kenny Rogers, Executive Director
Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
310 692-0162 (Cell), Kenny@CalGovCouncil.org

Media Contact: Bill Bradley, Me Communications
916/213-5230 (Cell); Bill@me-comm.com

 

RUSKIN ELEMENTARY NAMED THE BAY AREA REGIONAL FITNESS CHAMPION

School to receive $6,000 for stepping up to Governor's Challenge

 
Sacramento - Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Chairman Jake Steinfeld announced today that Ruskin Elementary has won the Bay Area Regional Award in the 2010 Governor's Challenge for "outstanding efforts to promote fitness for students, parents and teachers."  Ruskin Elementary is one of more than 2,400 schools that competed in the Governor's Challenge Competition in 2010, and one of 11 schools that have been selected as a Regional Award winner by the Council.   Later this year, a Governor's Council representative will visit Ruskin Elementary and present the school with a $5,000 check for physical activity equipment and a $1,000 gift card to a CVS/pharmacy - CVS/pharmacy is the sponsor of the Governor's Challenge Regional Awards.

"I'm proud to announce Ruskin Elementary School as the Bay Area Regional Award winners because Ruskin students are true champions of fitness," said Steinfeld.  "My motto has always been 'Don't Quit' and I was excited to see that once all Ruskin students signed up to participate in the Governor's Fitness Challenge, they not only didn't quit, they were active all year long and helped set a standard for other schools in California and the rest of the nation to follow."  In 2009-2010 100% of Ruskin Elementary students successfully completed the Governor's Challenge of being active 30-60 minutes a day, at least 3 days a week for a month and most continued being physically active well beyond the first month.  In total, Ruskin Elementary School's 629 students recorded an astounding 118,072 days of physical activity through the course of the year.

Ruskin Elementary has made a commitment to changing how students, families, and community think about healthy eating and fitness.  To that end, they created RuskinFIT, which is a grassroots effort sponsored by parents and teachers.  The goal is to organize and promote various school activities during the school day with students as well as during non-school hours with the community. Principal Nancy Ho remarks, "Through RuskinFIT, we were able to partner with a wide variety of organizations such as Food 4 Thought to bring in locally grown farm fresh produce for students to promote Ban Junk Food Days and Jamba Juice, who provided wholesome drinks at various events.  We couldn't be more proud of how healthy our students have become."

Overall, more than 1.3 million students, parents and teachers participated in the 2010 Governor's Challenge.  Cumulatively, these participants recorded over 11,100,000 days of physical activity - that's more activity than was recorded through similar fitness challenges in all the other 49 states combined.  "By encouraging our children to get physically active, we are setting them on a path to a bright future," stated Steinfeld. "Studies have shown that physical activity positively impacts health, boosts confidence, improves self-esteem and plays a key role in academic success.  Ruskin Elementary and others schools that participated in the Governor's Challenge are moving in the right direction and I applaud them for their efforts.  Way to go Ruskin!"

"We salute the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports for their efforts to encourage physical activity among California students," said Dennis Palmer, Senior Vice President, CVS/pharmacy, "We're proud to support the Governor's Challenge and are committed to helping improve the health and fitness of young people across the state."

The Grand Prize winning elementary school, middle school and high school in the 2010 Governor's Challenge Competition will be announced September 17th at the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Spotlight Awards Ceremony presented by the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation.  Also on September 17th, the Governor's Council expects to launch the 2011 Governor's Challenge Competition.

The California Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting physical activity for all Californians with an emphasis on children and youth. Governor Schwarzenegger is the Honorary Chairman and Council members include Chairman Jake Steinfeld, Vice Chairman Peter Vidmar, and California sports legends such as Tony Hawk, Jerry Rice, Misty May-Treanor, Lisa Leslie, Laila Ali and Julie Foudy.  Governor's Council key initiatives include the Governor's Challenge presented in part by General Mills, the Governor's Council Spotlight Awards Presented by Anthem Blue Cross Foundation, the Governor's Council Activity Guide, the Live Like a Champion Tour powered by Anthem Blue Cross and Exercise is Medicine.  Founding sponsors are Anthem Blue Cross Foundation and Kaiser Permanente.

CVS/pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Caremark Corporation (NYSE: CVS), is America's leading retail pharmacy with more than 7,100 CVS/pharmacy and Longs Drug stores. CVS/pharmacy is committed to improving the lives of those we serve by making innovative and high-quality health and pharmacy services safe, affordable and easy to access, both in its stores and online. General information about CVS/pharmacy and CVS Caremark is available also at their website.