On November 11th, Mayor Price and FitWorth will celebrate Carter Park Elementary as the first place winner of the 2015 FitWorth Mayor’s Challenge – a four-week healthy tracking challenge for youth in Fort Worth. With nearly 33,000 children participating at 113 Fort Worth I.S.D. elementary, middle, and high schools, this was the biggest year yet for the challenge and engaged more schools than ever before.
Each winning school will receive up to $1,000 in funding from FitWorth for new physical activity equipment, and the first place winner earns a visit from Mayor Price and local leaders to celebrate the movement for more movement, for all ages. Carter Park Elementary took first place in the FitWorth Mayor’s Challenge, with an average of 5,345 minutes of physical activity per child. They were followed by De Zavala and D. McRae Elementaries, who were tied for second place, with David K. Sellars, Worth Heights, and Hubbard Heights in third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. With nearly six million minutes of physical activity collectively, participants throughout Fort Worth I.S.D. averaged 2,020 minutes of activity during the challenge.
As a result of their participation, coaches reported that other academic classes were incorporating more activity and nutrition content into their curriculums, that students began choosing the regular lunch line instead of the snack line, and stories of students challenging their parents to track minutes at home. These testimonials drive increased momentum behind safe play both inside and outside of the classroom, propelling FitWorth’s commitment to generating community-wide awareness of the importance of movement and nutrition.
The mission of the FitWorth Mayor’s Challenge is to empower role models and provide tools for increasing physical activity, alongside fruit, vegetable, and water consumption, based on the Institute of Medicine’s key recommendation for preventing childhood obesity. By empowering role models, increasing behavioral awareness, marketing what matters, and strengthening the school as the heart of health, the FitWorth Mayor’s Challenge is a cornerstone for grassroots community health efforts.
To learn more about how to get involved with FitWorth, visit www.fitworth.org.
ABOUT FITWORTH:
The mission of FitWorth is to inspire a community-wide cultural shift toward increased physical activity and nutritional choices in Fort Worth, serving more than 30,000 children and families every year. By providing tools for role model empowerment and behavioral awareness, FitWorth aims to act as a hub of coordinated and collaborative community resources, to generate momentum for a healthy Fort Worth.
About FitWorth Healthy City Initiative:
FitWorth is a family-focused initiative of Mayor Betsy Price and the Fort Worth City Council launched in September 2012 to address the growing trend of childhood obesity in the city. In 2014, FitWorth became an independent program of Foundation for Wellness, Texas, tasked with promoting health and active lifestyles through an individualized and sustainable approach to community wellness.