Back To School!!

08/27/14

It’s the first day of school in Natick, MA where BOKS began and my kids couldn’t be more excited to get back! I dropped them off this morning with smiles, their backpacks and new Reebok shoes. It’s crazy how busy the summer has been and now we get to get back into our regular routine including BOKS every morning to get our brains moving!

This summer BOKS officially reached 1,000 schools which is a huge milestone for us! BOKS has come a long way since its inception in the fall of 2009. Approximately 60,000 kids across the globe have participated in BOKS and have started healthy habits that will last a lifetime. We are in nearly every state (anyone know anyone in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, or Utah who wants to bring BOKS to their school? ). BOKS is also expanding internationally, with Canada, India, and Panama starting BOKS this fall. By the end of 2014, BOKS will be in six countries: US, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Panama, and India. The exponential growth of BOKS is just a small part of the larger movement to help the youth generation develop healthy habits.

We can’t thank the BOKS community enough for helping spread the word! The passionate Champions of Change are the real drivers behind this movement. You’ve inspired principals, teachers, parents, and kids to see the benefits of being physically active and practicing healthy habits. Many of you shared the program with your coworkers and friends and helped spread the program simply by word of mouth. Through your efforts as advocates, trainers, and volunteers ‘building our kids’ success’ has become a reality.

To continue this success, we need your help by spreading the word about BOKS. Even more exciting is our new BOKS Kids Fitness Certificate developed in partnership with American Council on Exercise (ACE) which offers BOKS trainers an opportunity to become nationally recognized for their work getting kids physically active and receive CEC credits.

AND right now we are awarding $1,000 BOKS Activation Grants for up to 300 schools for the 2014/2015 school year. These Activation Grants are offered to schools that haven’t yet implemented BOKS, so please spread the word. Our goal is to give all kids the opportunity to be active and healthy.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – we need to create a shift from a culture of spectators to a culture of participants and there is no better way than to start with our youth. We are working alongside Let’s Move! Active Schools, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and a number of other partners to truly make a difference.

Thanks for being a part of the BOKS movement. We really are making a difference. Remember, don’t sit still: Active Kids = Active Minds.