Fruit, water, exercise

The students of one St Michael secondary school are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to healthy living.

On Friday, the student council body at the Ellerslie School in association with the Guidance Counselling department introduced a Flash to Fitness campaign, which will see the students eating healthier food options and participating in a range of activities.

Guidance Counsellor Deidre Went told Barbados TODAY the idea behind the campaign was to help students live a healthier life.

“When I look around and I see some of our students struggling to go up the stairs and struggling to move around, and then when I look at all the junk food they are eating, I think about their health and financing. So I am trying to get them to eat healthier things and do some exercise,” said Went.

Under the new programme, students are being challenged to consume more water and more fruits and get more active.

In the final week of this month, there will be a Zumba class, a taste of which the students got on Friday as the student council body demonstrated some of the moves.

During the activity week at the end of the month, the students will compete in their different school houses in a range of activities including cycling, tennis and dodgeball, and the house that wins will go up against the teachers.

The school’s student council will be pushing the campaign as they encourage their peers to take part. Sports Coordinator of the Ellerslie School Student Council Addis Ward said the campaign would make that learning institution the first secondary school to embark on such a campaign. She said her hope was that it would continue long after she has left the institution.

“The Water day will be every Wednesday. So we are encouraging the students to bring a water bottle or buy a water bottle from the canteen. On Thursdays, we encourage them to bring a fruit or buy a fruit from the canteen,” said Ward.

“I believe this would help them in the long run. Diabetes is strong with teenagers, and some teenagers in the school are very thick. So in the long run, we don’t want that they have to be losing a leg or hand because they are eating the junk food they are eating today.”

Ward said she wanted other secondary schools to follow their lead. “The Ellerslie School [is] leading but we would promote other schools to do the same and follow in our footsteps,” she said. (MM)