July 31, 2009
St. Mary’s Foundation grant to benefit public school students
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Eight public schools in the Evansville Vanderburgh County School Corporation will benefit from a Carol M. White Physical Education Grant from the United States Department of Education.
The grant was awarded to St. Mary’s Foundation for $450,000 in the current fiscal year and two additional payments to follow. It will support a Healthy Kids Initiative at six elementary schools — Harper, Hebron, Stockwell, Stringtown, Tekoppel and Vogel — and two middle schools — McGary and Perry Heights, according to a news release from St. Mary’s.
Catholic schools were not eligible for the federal funds, according to Tom Lilly, St. Mary’s senior vice president of foundation operations. Lilly said he would seek similar grants for Catholic schools if they were available.
The selection of the eight public schools was based on their free and reduced lunch rate, which averaged just over 60 percent. Parochial schools typically have a small fraction of students eligible for free or reduced lunch.
Participating schools will have specialists in the fields of nutrition, physical education/activity and physical therapy and will offer family counseling and social services. Exercise equipment and health monitoring equipment will be available.
St. Mary’s already provides services to area public and pa-rochial schools, including annual support for after-school programs, an asthma camp and on-going health education materials for children and their families.
In the fall of 2008, St. Mary’s screened 6,100 children for body mass index, height, weight and blood pressure, and as a result, 1,200 parents were notified that their children had abnormal blood pressure readings. While abnormal blood pressure readings are not a diagnosis, parents were asked to have their children seen by a family doctor. Forty-percent of these children were above the range of what is considered normal body mass index for their age.
“There are serious consequences for the decisions we make about our physical activity and the type of food we put into our body,” said Lilly. “Health care reform can start in our homes and families by teaching our children the value of exercise and healthy eating.”
Since the Carol M. White Physical Education Program began in 2001, the Department of Education has awarded approximately $555 million in grants.
Among the latests awards, St. Mary’s is receiving one of only 70 grants in the nation. The Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis was the only other award winner in Indiana.