Health Happenings

Girl Scouts and Healthy Living Programs

By Kerri Rice, Field Executive
Girl Scouts-Zia Council, Inc.

Every girl deserves to live a healthy life-both emotionally and physically. Girl Scouts builds the necessary skills to keep their bodies healthy, their minds engaged, and their spirits alive. Some of these programs include:

Girl Scouts Shape UP!

Created to encourage healthy nutrition and regular physical activity, the Girl Scouts Shape UP! program encourages girls to live well and develop healthy habits.

GirlSports

The GirlSports program develops lifelong health and fitness habits, and has been successful in increasing girls' participation in sports nationally. A sports-readiness kit teaches the basics of motor skills and agility, throwing, catching, volleying, batting, and more through a variety of activities. Fit & Fun, a component of the Girl Scouts' GirlSports program, is for girls, ages 8 to 11. It has 10 different skill sets activity cards that focus on fair play, cooperation, and skill progression.

Media Smart Youth

Does watching television make us fat? Not for a new generation of Girl Scouts that are teaching young girls that being healthy is also about being media smart.

Media Smart Youth was designed to motivate young people to think about nutrition and physical activity and help them become aware of the connections between media and their health.

GoGirlGo!

GoGirlGo! is the primary programming focus of the Women's Sports Foundation designed to combat the alarming physical and psychological health hazards affecting America's young girls. GoGirlGo! uses sport and physical activity as an educational intervention that supports girls' health and wellness in childhood and early womanhood.

The GoGirlGo! curriculum shows girls how to cope with circumstances and change behaviors that threaten their well-being and to embrace a physically active lifestyle.

WHY GIRL SCOUTS IS OFFERING HEALTHY LIVING PROGRAMS TO SCHOOLS:

Approximately 25 million children under 17 are either overweight or obese.

A girl's participation in sports or physical activity declines significantly as she gets older. By the time she is 16 or 17, only 1 in 7 attends P.E. class daily, and 15-30 percent report no regular physical activity at all.

Inactivity is much more common among females than males and among black females than white females.

By age 15, girls are twice as likely as boys to have experienced a major depressive episode.

Over 90 percent of victims of eating disorders are female, and 86 percent report onset by age 20

This year Girl Scouts in Otero County are joining our school's efforts to keep our children healthy by bringing lunchtime and afterschool Healthy Living Programs to the schools. By working with the schools we are able to help girls grade K - 12 realize that making a conscious effort to live a healthy life can be fun. Through these physical activity and healthy nutrition programs all girls are encouraged to try something new, be their best, make healthy choices and have fun with their friends in a safe all-girl environment.

For more information on Girl Scouts or the Girl Scouts and Healthy Living Programs please contact Kerry Rice at 437-2921 or krice@zia.org.

This column is provided as a service of the Otero County Community Health Council and the Alamogordo Daily News as a way to provide the latest in health and wellness information, services and events. The Mission of the OCCHC is "to assess, promote, and enhance the health and well being of county residents by creating a process that encourages broad-based community involvement." If you would like more information about OCCHC or would like to be a part of our efforts, contact Lee Ann Loney, OCCHC Coordinator, at 700 E. First Street, Suite 720, Alamogordo, NM 88310, 443-8100, oteromch@netmdc.com for more information. The Community Health Council meets the first Tuesday of each month, 11:30 am at The Counseling Center, 1900 E. 10th St. Articles for this column are submitted by Health Council partners, but do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Otero County Community Health Council.

Otero County Community Health Council

700 E. 1st St.
Suite 720
Alamogordo, NM
88310
(575) 443-8100
Fax (575) 437-2949
oterochc@tularosa.net
oteromch@netmdc.com