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Student Spotlight: Luke Dalpe

Whether they be students, trainers, or family members we are always so excited to hear stories of transformation and growth that can (at least in part) be attributed to BOKS. One such story comes from Jordan/Jackson Elementary School in Mansfield, MA. We sat down with 10-year-old Luke Dalpe, his mother Carolyn, and his two brothers 13-year-old Neil and their youngest brother Logan who is 6-years-old at BOKS headquarters to talk about how the program has impacted Luke.

This is Luke’s Student Spotlight story:

When you first meet Luke you can tell right away he’s an energetic, self-aware and kind young man.

“He needs to move constantly,” his mother Carolyn explains as Luke spins in his chair.

“We try to keep the kids moving,” she continues describing how they play freeze dance and play other games while waiting for the bus in the morning. Luke has always enjoyed being active. His favorite sport is basketball and his second favorite is lacrosse. He has plans to pursue swimming, and track, and has already completed three 5K races. Luke even breaks a sweat while enjoying video games. “We exercise while playing Xbox!” Luke exclaims, exchanging an excited look with his younger brother. “I sweat because I’m working so hard.”

Luke needs physical activity but only has P.E. once a week at school. BOKS has been a helpful supplement for him to increase his physical activity before school. But, that’s not the only area of Luke’s life that BOKS has impacted. Luke and his family started noticing improvements in his test scores on days that he had BOKS in the morning. In math class, Luke went from a 44 percent test score on a non-BOKS day to a 93 percent after doing BOKS!

In addition to the physical and academic benefits of BOKS, Luke has also incorporated BOKS into his toolkit for dealing with anxiety.

“I have anxiety but I use my tools. BOKS is one of those tools,” Luke explains. And his family aren’t the only ones who have noticed exceptional growth since Luke has started BOKS. Luke received student of the month in December at his school. He also received BOKS “Kid of the Day” for courtesy, kindness, consideration, and respect of his fellow students and teachers.

Waking up early for BOKS doesn’t bother Luke.

When he has BOKS, Luke will just leap up and get dressed exclaiming,“’It’s BOKS day!’ “Every other day of the week we have to leave the house in the morning he doesn’t do that, only on BOKS days!” His mother, Carolyn, adds. When asked if he minds the early mornings, Luke replied “No, not if it’s something I like.”

It is easy to see that Luke is a young man whose self-awareness has pushed him to overcome any struggles he may face. We at BOKS are proud to be a part of Luke’s toolkit, and hope to inspire others with stories like his!

Partner Spotlight: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Jeff Bellows

Luckily, in our work here at BOKS, we have the pleasure of meeting individuals whose passion for health and wellness matches our own. Collaboration with these like-minded and driven individuals led to BOKS’ founding and keeps our program thriving today. One of those individuals is Jeff Bellows, Vice President Corporate Citizenship & Public Affairs at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with Jeff and it is our pleasure to feature him as well as BCBSMA this month in our Partner Spotlight:

BOKS Founder Kathleen Tullie met Jeff Bellows at an event hosted by the Mass General Hospital for Children a few years ago. At the time, BCBSMA’s corporate citizenship was focused on four pillars – one of which was healthy child development – a perfect fit for the BOKS program.

With an aligned vision and a desire to impact the community, the relationship with BCBSMA and BOKS was born. While BOKS is free to communities due to our volunteer model, BCBSMA partners with us to bring BOKS to communities that may not have the ability to recruit volunteers to run the program. Since then our partnership and work together has continued to evolve reaching more and more communities across Massachusetts…

“Three years ago, we made the decision to evolve BCBSMA’s corporate citizenship work to be more aligned with who we are as a company,” said Jeff.  “Being a healthcare company, obviously healthy living is very important to us. So we launched our Healthy Living Platform which has allowed us to become a more strategic part of the company rather than a side project outside of the core business.”

To BCBSMA “Healthy Living” means healthy eating, active lifestyles and healthy environments.

“You can see why BOKS fits perfectly into this strategy,” added Jeff. “And what’s truly unique about BOKS is that while BCBSMA brings BOKS to low income communities through our corporate citizenship programming, our members and employees also see the benefits to their own children in their own communities.”

The BCBSMA Healthy Living Platform is not just focused on kids, although they find kids to be one of the most vulnerable populations, they have many initiatives that bring the benefits of health and wellness to people of all ages and backgrounds.

“It is important to BCBSMA that we bring our values to life in the community,” said Jeff. “We have the health expertise here that gives our members confidence that we will take care of them when they are sick and now we want people to think of us when they are healthy as well – which is why we provide programs like BOKS, our free fitness in the park, and many more programs that benefit our members as well as non-members.”

Jeff added that BOKS’ continued efforts to partner with organizations like Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School to prove the efficacy of the program has been terrific to see.

“BOKS works and every community can stand to benefit from it no matter their socioeconomic status,” he added.

We can’t thank you enough for your support Jeff. We look forward to continuing our partnership to help bring the benefits of health and wellness to all people in our communities.

Volunteer Spotlight: Conor Murphy, Reebok CrossFit ONE

At BOKS, we have the good fortune to work with many passionate individuals who, over the years, have taken our program to the next level. These people have sacrificed time, energy and resources to bring a love of movement and fitness to children across the globe. Conor Murphy is one of our greatest examples of a person who has put the needs of BOKS kids above his own and dedicated many hours of his time to our cause. Beyond his time at BOKS classes, Conor has spent countless training hours to raise funds for the program most recently at the Marine Corp. Marathon last fall and today in the toughest of conditions, at the Boston Marathon. Conor and three other members of Reebok CrossFit ONE, will on 26.2 miles while raising money to bring BOKS to schools that need it most. Conor and his team are almost halfway to their goal, click here to support their efforts.

We had the opportunity to catch up with Conor and hear more about his drive and dedication to BOKS, here is this week’s Volunteer Spotlight:

Please briefly explain the highlights of your own personal journey with fitness:

My personal journey with fitness starts and ends with my overall health. Health, for me, can be defined as fitness throughout the years of your life. Taking 5th place at the 2017 Reebok CrossFit Games was definitely the highest athletic accomplishment achieved, but I look forward to training and lifting weights well into my 70’s and 80’s. That’s why I train.

How did you first get involved with BOKS?

Kathleen Tullie one day asked if I would come and stop by one the BOKS schools and hang with the kids. Hanging and playing with the kids that morning warmed my soul. I wanted to get involved in any way that I could.

What has been the most impactful BOKS moment for you?

Hearing the stories from children about how much they love the BOKS program. For many of them, it is the highlight of their day.

Why do you feel passionately about bringing fitness opportunities to kids?

I feel passionately about bringing fitness opportunities to kids because it is absolutely necessary. Kids need this, potentially more than anything else they do in school. We were meant to be active. Sedentarism mixed with overconsumption of food is the reason our nation faces a wave of chronic disease.

Who is one of your biggest role models and why?

Anyone who does the right things, for the right reasons, for the right people. Selfless people like Geoff Leard, James Hobart, Kevan Miller, Kathleen Tullie… All of these people would give you the shirt off of their back with no recognition desired. In fact, most of them are drawn towards helping people the most when it goes unnoticed. Integrity driven people.

Finally, what inspired you to run for BOKS in the 2018 Boston Marathon?

Things weren’t always as peaceful with me as they are now. If there is a way that I can give back to the children of this world and improve the quality of life for others, then I am on the right track. I am only a vehicle in this operation. The real heroes are the people donating money for this cause. I am always inspired by people’s will to help others. Though you may not see it on the morning news, I assure you, people still care about one another.

TRAINER SPOTLIGHT: LORI VINAS AND HER SON TOMMY VINAS

For this week’s Trainer Spotlight we are excited to highlight Lori Vinas from Buckeye, Arizona. Lori’s first exposure to BOKS came when she attended the 2017 CrossFit games to support her son, Tommy Vinas, who was competing. Lori saw a BOKS challenge on vendor row, and proceeded to sign up her school Verrado Elementary in Buckeye, Arizona where she teaches 4th grade.

As a teacher, Lori has always included “brain breaks” in an effort to keep her students active (a practice we at BOKS fully support through our BOKS Bursts)! Lori ran BOKS twice a week every Tuesday and Thursday and received amazing feedback from students, parents, and administrators. Other teachers at Verrado even told Lori that BOKS participants seemed more energized and eager to start the day!

A special element of Lori’s experience though is that her son, Tommy, was able to come in and lead a BOKS class at Verrado. As a trainer at ZeroMachine CrossFit, a participant of the South West Crossfit Regionals for the past three years, and a participant in the 2017 CrossFit games Tommy possesses a strong passion for health and fitness. He was able to share this passion with the BOKS students by taking them through curriculum, and finishing the class with a discussion on nutritional eating.

As Lori will be retiring in May she is looking for a volunteer to take over the BOKS program at Verrado. Volunteers like Lori and Tommy are so fundamental to our mission here at BOKS, and any opportunity we have to strengthen our relationships with organizations such as CrossFit we warmly welcome. These relationships allow us to collaborate on opportunities and events that further our shared values. Thank you to Lori and Tommy for brining the power of physical activity to more children!

Follow Tommy Vinas on Instagram:

@t_vinas249

 

Thank you SHAPE America!

The BOKS team has just returned (and recovered) from another amazing year at SHAPE America. This year’s conference which took place in Nashville, TN brought together some of the brightest educators in the country for a few days of professional development, inspiring talks and powerful networking.

The BOKS team had the absolute pleasure of taking the entire conference through some of our in-classroom activity breaks called, BOKS BURSTS. We loved seeing you all with your red solo cups and hope that you’ll take these breaks along with our programming back to your school communities.

Those of you that we had the pleasure of meeting at the booth will have received a follow-up email from us by now but if we didn’t get the chance to catch up please reach out to us with any questions at info@bokskids.org.

Below are all the useful links you may need:

Ready to get started with BOKS? CLICK HERE

Want to receive our in-class activity breaks? SIGN UP HERE

Not finding what you need? EMAIL US  AT INFO@BOKSKIDS.ORG

 

Did you see BOKS in the New York Times?

We have some extremely exciting news here at BOKS: researchers from Mass General Hospital for Children published research showing that the BOKS program not only improves BMI but also impacts children’s school engagement, vitality and general happiness.
Not only was the study published in the American Journal for Preventative Medicine but widely respected New York Times Journalist Gretchen Reynolds covered the results of the research in her article, ” A Before-School Exercise Program May Help Children Thrive ” (included below).
We have always known that BOKS improves our children physically, mentally and socially but the results of this study will help our community prove the value of the program to administrators, parents and volunteers.
If you have experienced the benefits of the BOKS program – we’d love it if you could share the article below and help spread the work so we can bring BOKS to more children across the globe.
Feb. 14, 2018
A supervised exercise program that gets young children running and playing for an hour before school could make them happier and healthier, while also jibing with the needs and schedules of parents and school officials, according to a  new study involving two dozen elementary and middle schools .
The results also caution, however, that the benefits may depend on how often children actually participate.
Physical activity among children in most of the developed world has been on a steep decline for decades. National exercise guidelines in the United States recommend that children and adolescents engage in at least an hour of exercise every day. But by most estimates, barely 20 percent of young people are that active, and many scarcely exercise at all. Meanwhile, rates of obesity among children as young as 2 hover at around 17 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Read the full article here.

School Spotlight: Enfield Public Schools’ Healthy Taste Testings

One of the greatest things about the BOKS program is that it can be easily adaptable and customized to a school’s needs. One of the benefits of this flexibility is that as schools use BOKS they often come up with additional creative activities and programs outside of the BOKS curriculum. At BOKS, we like to uncover these gems and share them with the greater BOKS community.

This month, we are highlighting Enfield Public Schools “Healthy Taste Testings” program. Read on to hear more about this creative nutrition program:

To learn more about Healthy Taste Testing, the BOKS marketing team reached out to Jennifer Moncuse. Jennifer works for KITE, the early childhood collaborative that brought BOKS to six of the Enfield Public Schools in Connecticut. She has also served as a BOKS trainer in one of her own children’s schools so she has firsthand knowledge of the benefits of the program.

Jennifer told us that after realizing the benefits of the nutritional education the comes with BOKS Bits – she came up with the idea to pioneer “Healthy Taste Testings” into her BOKS sessions. These taste tests are not just a huge hit with the kids but they provide them the opportunity to try fruits, vegetables, and snacks that they normally wouldn’t!

Jennifer keeps parents in the loop by distributing parental consent forms that outline the specific foods that the kids are tasting. To add an extra element of sustainability, several of the items were locally grown and sourced from farms in the area. The kids look forward to the unique nutritional education, tasting foods like kiwi and blue corn chips and comparing baby carrots to carrots grown on a local farm.

We love to see our dedicated participants and volunteers showing creativity, and implementing programs that not only get kids excited for BOKS, but help them improve their overall health!

Are smartphones the new cigarettes?

By Kathleen Tullie, Senior Director of Social Purpose Reebok and founder & executive director, BOKS

Those of you that are my age can probably remember a time when buying a pack of cigarettes was the norm – “lighting up” was a welcome break in the day – and no one looked down on you for doing so. I realize the younger you are, the less believable this scenario is. But believe me, there was a time that no one really knew that cigarettes were bad for you.

Today, I look around at the tops of people’s heads (as they stare down at the light from their phones) and can’t help but wonder if this new version of “lighting up” is going the way of cigarettes? In the future will your smartphone come with a Surgeon’s General Warning? Will MTV start a Truth campaign to educate young people to the dangers of technology? Will technology providers like Apple and Facebook be demonized like Tobacco companies? This may sound ridiculous, but the more research that comes out on the effects of technology, the more real this becomes.

For example, Jean Twenge, Professor of Psychology, San Diego State University and her colleagues, recently published and in-depth research paper called – “Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time.” In this extensive research, Twenge found a direct correlation between the rapid adoption of smartphone use and an equally rapid increase in teen depression and suicide rates (according to the Pew Research Center, smartphone ownership crossed the 50 percent threshold in late 2012 – right when teen depression and suicide began to increase).

Solely blaming screen time for a generation’s unhappiness seems like a stretch – but it’s not just the screen time that’s of concern it’s what screen time is replacing – physical activity and social connections. According to the research, adolescents who spent more time on new media (including social media and electronic devices such as smartphones) were more likely to report mental health issues, and adolescents who spent more time on non-screen activities (in-person social interaction, sports/exercise, homework, print media, and attending religious services) were less likely.

I’m not a subject matter expert and I won’t pretend to have the answers on the appropriate amount of time you should allow your children to use their devices (if you want more on that I’d recommend Anya Kamenetz’s The Art of Screen Time). But what I can recommend, and I have found myself a bit of an expert in, is movement as medicine.

Recently, Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School conducted a study on children who participated in physical activity first thing in the morning for 3 days a week – in addition to improved BMI, participants also had better scores regarding their engagement in schoolwork, and significant improvements in mood, vitality and energy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/14/well/move/a-before-school-exercise-program-may-help-children-thrive.html

I have seen firsthand through my work with BOKS, that morning exercise makes children happier, more social and more engaged in classroom activities. This was true 9 years ago when we started the program and it’s even more important today, as sport and fitness now represent one of the only times in our day when we put down our screens and truly live in the moment.

The need for movement in the days of screen addiction became very clear in a recent study of young girls and boys in the UK. Experts warned that there is a “direct correlation” between a lack of physical activity by young British girls and them having poorer mental health and lower aspirations than their male counterparts. While data also shows that girls are more likely to own and actively use smartphones than boys.

I’m not saying we should all completely get rid of our phones or start wearing the tech-equivalent of a nicotine patch (technology has many benefits including the power to connect people in new ways). What I am saying is that we need to encourage balance in our children at a young age. Even if your child isn’t into sports – encouraging them to put their phones down and move will not only benefit their bodies and minds but will force them to take a break from “lighting up” on their screens – which we should all be doing every day.

Four Questions with Nancy Day, BOKS RI Area Coordinator

For the third installment in our BOKS appreciation series “4 Questions With…” we are excited to highlight a very special team member of ours, Nancy Day. Nancy serves as the BOKS Rhode Island Area Coordinator, and is a crucial member of our team. Her passion and dedication to the mission of BOKS is evident through her work.

Here’s four questions with Nancy:

What do you love about BOKS?

I love the fact that BOKS provides children with a fun, healthy and safe way to start their day with physical activity, as well as providing them with information to lead a healthy lifestyle. BOKS is a necessary, and fun, antidote to the sedentary lifestyle that affects too many children.

How has fitness and/or physical activity been important in your life?

I ran cross-country in high school and college, so I’ve always known the importance of remaining in good physical condition. My children are cross country runners and I enjoy watching them develop the same interest in physical fitness and conditioning.

Describe yourself in 140 characters.

I am a mother of 2 who passionately believes all children need to learn good exercise habits and healthy lifestyle choices.

Share your favorite BOKS story.

At the 2016 Rhode Island Healthy Schools Coalition Breakfast for School Leaders, BOKS was asked to do the activity break with the attendees. Twelve of my BOKS kids (my 2 children included) from my school district lead a fun activity. They made a big impact on the group and many people were inspired to bring BOKS to their schools.

Announcement from BOKS Executive Director Kathleen Tullie: INTRODUCING OUR NEW LOOK

Since founding BOKS in 2009, the program has evolved quite a bit. What began as a before-school physical activity program run by three enthusiastic moms, has turned into a movement backed by scientists and adopted by nearly 3,000 communities across the globe.

Since that time, our children’s need for daily movement has become increasingly dire. New technology and longer school days has made kids’ lives more sedentary than ever – threatening their physical and mental health. And no one is more at risk than children living in low income communities, as access to sport becomes more and more expensive.

Today, I’m proud to say that BOKS is run in communities of all income levels, at different times, in different languages, for many different age groups, bringing movement to more than 100,000 kids on any given day. Throughout BOKS’ growth and evolution, the organization has remained steadfast in its mission to bring the physical, mental and social benefits of movement to every child and just as important – to have fun!

In order to accurately reflect this growth while staying true to our core values, I’m excited to announce that we have updated our brand’s look and feel.

Our new logo, colors and mark more accurately reflect the impactful program that BOKS is today and allow us to grow our programming in the future. In our new mark, the broken chevrons represent the power of movement and each line of the “K” in BOKS represents the mental, physical and social benefits BOKS provides. We are moving to a bolder color palette to appeal to kids of all ages, genders and backgrounds.

We will be rolling out the new branding gradually through our various distribution channels, eventually turning over our website as well. It is our hope that you will wrap your arms around our new look and continue to support BOKS on its mission.

All the best!

-Kathleen