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Community Champion Awards

Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future logoThe Surgeon General is visiting communities to highlight prevention programs and recognizing “Champions” for their commitment to building partnerships and implementing programs to help kids stay active, encourage kids’ healthy eating habits, and promote healthy choices.

External Link Disclaimer Please note that links to award recipients on this page go to non-federal Web sites.


The Maine Healthy Weight Awareness Campaign
Augusta, ME, July 1, 2008. The Maine Healthy Weight Awareness Campaign is a social marketing program that provides Maine parents simple steps to keep their children and families healthy and active. The campaign concentrates on increased physical activity, adherence to serving size recommendations, less soda intake, reduced screen time, and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables. Maine Healthy Weight Awareness Campaign


The Early Sprouts Program
Manchester, NH, July 1, 2008. At Keene State College, the nutrition and early childhood education faculty have collaborated with HNHfoundation to develop the 24-week Early Sprouts Program. Early Sprouts is a research-based Nutrition and Gardening curriculum for the preschool years. The program scope includes raised organic garden beds, sensory experiences, and cooking lessons focused on six target fruits and vegetables. Early Sprouts Program


Go Kids Boston
Boston, MA, June 30, 2008. Go Kids Boston is a research and training center focused on improving children’s fitness, with a special emphasis on diverse, low income populations. Through movement, education, and technology, Go Kids Boston helps children and their families take action to lead healthier lives. Go Kids Boston


(L-R) Surgeon General Galson, David Abdoo - HHS, U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, and Anne Davis, founding trustee of the New Balance Foundation

Greater Lawrence Family Health Care Center (GLFHC) & New Balance Foundation
Lawrence, MA, June 30, 2008. GLFHC provides a network of comprehensive health care to improve the health of individuals and families. Childhood obesity prevention is the primary focus of the New Balance Foundation. The GLFHC and New Balance Foundation partnership addresses the health risks of being overweight as a child and promotes healthy choices that lead to healthy lives. GLFHC and New Balance Foundation


Eagle Mountain Magnet Elementary
Batesville, AR, June 19, 2008. Eagle Mountain Magnet school offers the following creative activities/clubs: Feelin’ Good Mileage Club, Yoga for Kids, Jump Rope Team, Biking Adventure, International Dance, Healthy Cooking Class, among others. The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (PCPFS) has named Eagle Mountain an Active Lifestyle Model School since 2005. PCPFS Model School


Howe Academy - PE4life
Indianapolis, IN, May 28, 2008. PE4life focuses on lifetime learning of physical activities and quality physical education. Since 2001, the PE4life Academies have trained more than 1,500 teachers, administrators and community leaders and have impacted the lives of more than 1.7 million students. In 2006, the Howe Academy was one of six schools in the country named to a national PE4life program.


Lawrence Township School Foundation (LTSF) - My Community Gets Healthy
Indianapolis, IN, May 28, 2008. The LTSF partners with several community organizations in the My Community Gets Healthy (MCGH) initiative. The initiative brings comprehensive, sustainable fitness and wellness programs into all Lawrence Township schools. For example, more than 700 Lawrence Township students are participating in a core MCGH program. MCGH includes professional health education and fitness instruction during and after school and also incorporates wellness instruction for families.


Native American Health Center - Tribal Athletics Program
Oakland, CA, May 20, 2008. The Native American Health Center assists American Indians and Alaska Natives to improve and maintain their physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual well-being with respect to cultural traditions. The Tribal Athletics Program illustrates the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle through team sports (soccer, introductory lacrosse, etc.) to prevent childhood obesity and decrease other health risks.


National Business Group on Health
Washington, DC, May 13, 2008. The National Business Group on Health (NBGH) is the national voice of large employers specifically dedicated to finding innovative and forward-thinking solutions to the nation’s most important health care issues. NBGH created the Institute on the Cost and Health Effects of Obesity which is focused on developing strategies to leverage corporate resources to respond to the nation's obesity epidemic.


Trim Kids Program at the YMCA of Greater New Orleans
New Orleans, LA, May 8, 2008. Trim Kids is a 12-week pediatric weight management program designed by the Louisiana State University (LSU) Prevention of Childhood Obesity Laboratory. Trim Kids gives parents and children a positive, safe approach to lifetime weight management. The program utilizes weekly checklists, report and goal sheets, aerobic activity and food checklists, and strength and flexibility workout charts to help the child and parents stay motivated and to continue with the program.


Walt Disney’s Well-Balanced Food Initiative
Orlando, FL, May 6, 2008. The Walt Disney Company has incorporated healthier food choices for kids at its theme parks and properties since 2006. A typical kids' meal now offered at Disney is automatically served with low fat milk, 100-percent fruit juice or water along with side dishes like apple sauce or carrots in place of the traditional soft drinks and French fries.


Acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson rides a bicycle in a group of young people at the Bicycle Transportation Alliance event in Portland, OR.

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA)
Portland, OR, April 9, 2008: The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) is a non-profit membership organization working to promote bicycling and improve bicycling conditions in Oregon and SW Washington. BTA creates healthy, sustainable communities by teaching children safe bicycling techniques and making bicycling more convenient and more accessible for everyone.


The Campaign to make Delaware’s Kids the Healthiest in the Nation
Wilmington, DE, April 3, 2008: This campaign, launched by Nemours Health and Prevention Services in partnership with the Delaware Governor, encourages children to eat right and be more physically active through the 5-2-1-Almost None lifestyle for healthy living:

  • 5 — Eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day
  • 2 — Spending no more than two hours per day in front of a screen (TV, video games, recreational computer time)
  • 1 — Getting at least one or more hours of physical activity per day
  • Almost None — Drinking almost no sugary beverages (like soda, sports drinks and some juices)


Reshaping…Real Lives Initiative, Enloe GT Magnet High School, Wake County Public School System
Raleigh, NC, March 28, 2008: Enloe High and Wake County built a fully functional, state-of-the-art wellness center to offer students healthy activities to choose from both during and after the school day. Students can now collect and analyze their own personal fitness data, which has proven very successful in maximizing the students’ interest in their own health.


Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade County
Miami, FL, March 19, 2008: The Consortium for a Healthier Miami-Dade County is creating a healthier community through innovative and effective community-based health promotion, prevention, and control programs. This network of over 50 traditional and non-traditional partners uses Healthy People 2010 as a blueprint for proactively addressing risk factors that can be modified years before they contribute to illness and premature death. The Consortium is open to all interested persons and organizations.


Acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson joins students in a game at Nautilus Middle School in the wellness center.

Nautilus Middle School
Miami, FL, March 19, 2008: A newly established wellness center in the Nautilus Middle School has merged technology and fitness to keep children fit and healthy. The students use video-game equipped treadmills, motion-sensor dance games and a rock-climbing wall, all which promote an active lifestyle. In addition, students can watch podcasts of math lessons as they exercise. The center was funded by a Carol M. White Physical Education Grant.


Dr. Keith Troy, Columbus, OH - New Salem Missionary Baptist Church
Columbus, OH, February 27, 2008: Recognizing the importance of being a role model and change agent, Pastor Troy recently challenged every man in his congregation to complete a routine medical exam with a medical provider within the next three months. Due to the overwhelming success of this charge, local hospitals and other churches have joined Pastor Troy to enhance and expand prevention efforts.


Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC)
Chicago, IL, February 4, 2008: The Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) connects hundreds of researchers, public health advocates and practitioners to prevent childhood obesity in the Chicago area. CLOCC leads a number of community-based projects including one that trains teens, school staff, and neighborhood program providers to be nutrition and physical activity message ambassadors to support good choices for a healthy lifestyle.


Oklahoma Fit Kids Coalition
Oklahoma City, OK, January 31, 2008: This statewide coalition aims to strengthen childhood overweight and obesity prevention efforts through increased education and awareness. The Coalition’s vision is to “improve the health environment and behaviors of children and youth,” which goes along with their mission to “improve the health and well being of Oklahoma youth and families by reducing childhood obesity.”


Mayor Mick Cornett- Million Pound Challenge
Oklahoma City, OK, January 30, 2008: Mayor Mick Cornett of Oklahoma City challenged Oklahomans to lose one million pounds in a year starting January 1, 2008. The people of Oklahoma, prompted by poor health rankings, continue to join the effort and use an interactive Internet tool, www.thiscityisgoingonadiet.com, to track weight lost, receive expert tips and recipes, and link to local fitness centers.