In order to help fight obesity in America, school officials have improved the school food, added different varieties of gym classes and removed unhealthy drinks and foods from the vending machines. The latest advancement in this fight is a new club, Fuel Up to Play 60, started by sophomores Bailey Aanenson and Logan Ahern.
“We started in Cheney Middle School,” Aanenson said. “We started one at the Ninth Grade Center and obviously the next step was the high school and we felt it would be a good improvement since the high school didn’t have one.”
One of the main benefits of Fuel Up to Play 60, according to physical education teacher Leah Swedberg, is the fact that it is student-led so the ideas come from our peers rather than our superiors. Since Aanenson and Ahern brought up the idea of this club to physical education teacher Chelsea Hendricks, the advisers do not see a problem with having student leaders.
“You need to show a lot of leadership skills and be willing to step forward out of your comfort zone,” Aanenson said. “There are a lot of things you do if you become a committee member where you have to be a little silly or you have to be really serious on a different topic.”
Fuel Up to Play 60 has been in the district for several years, but only recently has it come to high school. This is partially due to the fact that Fuel Up to Play 60 attempts to start with younger kids hoping that the program will form good habits in young children and that those traditions will grow with them. Though sometimes, keeping those lifestyles is easier said than done.
“There was a year for me when it was literally me and one other person; that was the Fuel Up committee,” Aanenson said. “Other years we have up to 20 to 30 people and it depends. If you get to the point where you have two people and one of those people decides to drop out, it’s easy to lose it.”
Swedberg notes that another reason the club has only now been introduced is because a school cannot just sign up to partake in Fuel Up to Play 60. They have to be awarded grant money to participate.
“We have a lot of interest, but we didn’t have a lot of attendance at that first meeting,” Swedberg said. “Now that we’ve done the pledge and the kick-off, I think kids are starting to get the feel for what Play 60 might be, and that might help generate more interest.”
Besides focusing on the athletic portion of health, the new club will also pay attention to healthier eating habits. In November, Fuel Up to Play 60 will put on a taste testing to offer different varieties to healthy school lunches. Some options will be new fruits such as mangos or dairy products like yogurt or cheese.
“Eating healthy doesn’t always go well with high school students, they want the cookies and the kind of junk food, so you have to be the one to be able to convince and be able to show the right ways and wrong ways to do this,” Aanenson said.
In addition to being a decent program for the student body, Hendricks said Fuel Up to Play 60 allows its members unique opportunities, such as going to Washington D.C., to learn more about the new program.
Something Aanenson has learned is how valuable Fuel Up to Play 60 can be, not only right now, but later on in life.
“Out of all the clubs in our school, this is one that will really follow you until you are older,” Aanenson said. “Physical fitness and healthy eating don’t go away when you leave high school. And if you get into the habit and actually learn to support it with groups like Fuel Up to Play 60, it will continue on.”