Brunner Students Walk Their Way to Fitness

This Wednesday's noon recess was a particularly active one for the students at Brunner Elementary.

As part of the YMCA's "America on the Move Week," the students of Brunner all came together for a special walk around their school yard that was led by the local mayors.

The walk occured in two shifts, with the third and fourth graders walking together first, and the first and second graders coming together for the second shift. Scotch Plains Mayor Nancy Malool and Councilwoman Mary DePaola led the first group, and Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr directed the second.

The principal of Brunner, Jodi Frank, also participated, as did PTA members Jennifer Ryan and Jamie Tibbals and YMCA representatives Lisa Miele and Sheri Cognetti.

The walk was part of a four week long initiative being sponsored by a grant from Overlook Hospital and Pepsi Co. The Y serves the mission of this program by implementing small steps towards a healthier society.  The main goals are to encourage students to increase their walking by 2,000 steps daily and to eat 100 less calories per day. This first week, the goal is to attain a baseline number of the amount of steps taken by the students. 

Through the grant, the students were each able to receive a pedometer for only $2. Throughout the walk, students could be seen wearing their pedometers and periodically checking them to see how many steps they had. Those who opted not to buy a pedometer were told they could check with their friends to find out how many steps they had taken. A PTA member estimated that twice around the yard was about 800 steps. The principal said that 2,000 steps was roughly a mile.

Festivities for this program will be continuing around town in the upcoming weeks as the Y works with schools and families to increase exercise and decrease calories.

This won't be the last school-day walk for Brunner students. Today's event also kicked off the school's "Walk to School Wednesdays" program. Brunner is also registered to walk in the International Walk-to-School in the USA day on Oct. 7, which is coordinated internationally by the National Center for Safe Routes to School. This is the second year that Brunner has participated in this program, said Brunner mom Susan Rash, who is organizing the event.

See the photos on the right for a view of the event. Special thanks to Rash for submitting three of her own.