Sacred Heart School received a $10,000 grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama to help prevent childhood obesity. Physical Education and Health teacher Holly Winfrey said she’s going to use part of the grant to purchase new PE equipment for the kids.

“Just PE equipment in general is what I need,” she said.

According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, Alabama’s childhood obesity rate is 16.1 percent for children ages 10-17, making Alabama the 16th highest obesity rate in the nation. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama awarded a total of $266,500 through its Be Healthy School Grant program to 27 Alabama schools.

A portion of the grant award to Sacred Heart School will be shared with the state’s Healthy Eating, Healthy Living (HEAL) program, which Winfrey has participated in for the past three years.

The program provides teachers with curriculum and classroom materials. “It’s something we do with the kids every day,” she said. She uses the curriculum for grades 3-6.

“It tells the kids how to eat right, it tells them about ‘my plate,’ it tells them how many servings they’re supposed to have, how to be physically active for 60 minutes per day, how to live right,” she said. “It just puts it all into this one [package] of how to live a healthy lifestyle. It’s a great program.”

Because of the popularity of the program, there is a wait list. Winfrey applied for several years to be accepted into the HEAL program, which also holds annual workshops for teachers.

Getting the grant was a bit easier. Winfrey applied in April and heard fairly soon after that the school had been awarded the grant.

That’s good news, too, for her students, who continue to do HEAL lesson plans through distance learning. Her students have writing assignments and she also shares daily exercise and dance videos for their “brain breaks.”

“It’s been fine,” she said. “I miss the kids but it’s what we have to do.”

 Editor Amy Henderson can be reached at 256-734-213 Ext 216.