This is an exciting time for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (PCPFS), as we prepare to celebrate the Council’s 50th anniversary in 2006. We are using this opportunity to highlight the advancements in the promotion of physical activity, fitness, and sports for health and to publicize the role individuals, schools, organizations, businesses, and government can play in our effort to get Americans moving.

To highlight the good work others are doing to promote active lifestyles, we are launching a new kind of partnership, the 50th Anniversary Partners to Get America Moving. We hope you will consider becoming a 50th anniversary partner.

Bringing together the public and private sectors to promote health is an important part of our mission and one of our key messages. Collaborative efforts are essential in combating the obesity epidemic. We look forward to learning what you are doing to promote physical activity, fitness, and sports in your business, community, school, place of worship, park, or home, and we look forward to celebrating our 50th anniversary with you!

I am proud to highlight the accomplishments of a very good PCPFS friend, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. As Chair of the National Governor’s Association, Governor Huckabee is drawing attention to the importance of physical activity through his Healthy America initiative. Targeting wellness in the home, worksite, and schools, the initiative will help elevate the importance of physical activity and good nutrition among our nation’s governors and business leaders through partnerships and collaboration.

On behalf of the members and staff of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, I wish all of you a peaceful and joyous holiday season.  I look forward to the start of the New Year, when we look back proudly on 50 years of working with our partners to help Americans be active for life, as we forge partnerships and plans for an active, fit and healthy future.

Melissa Johnson