Key Club aims high for kids’ health

It often is said that there is strength in numbers. Members of the Blackman High School Key Club in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, proved this adage to be true when they teamed up with the Rutherford County Boys and Girls Club to host an educational program on nutrition and wellness for kids.

The Key Club developed the program based on Key Club International’s High Five For Health service initiative. They centered on the fact that children are less active than children in years past and often do not realize the benefits of healthy lifestyle habits. Hoping to teach children how to make decisions that work for life, the Key Clubbers came up with a three-prong focus—nutrition, play, and wellness—to incorporate all the facets of a healthy lifestyle.

“The partnership (between Key Club and the Boys and Girls Club) is logical and positive,” says club advisor Warren Johnson. “Key Club can provide quality programs and volunteers for events like High Five for Health, while the Boys and Girls Club can provide the student involvement and structure. It was a complete win-win situation.”

This joint venture may become much more prevalent as Kiwanis International is reviewing a potential partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of America this summer.

To ensure the Rutherford County Boys and Girls Club attendees had the best experience possible, Blackman Key Clubbers divided the children into groups by age. The youngest group completed a variety of health-related activities in one large room while the older groups moved to different activity stations. At each station, a speaker focused on the aspects of fitness, including athletic exercises, oral hygiene, and food choices. In addition to the stations, a drug and alcohol presentation promoted general wellness.

To further enhance their health message, Key Clubbers served healthful snacks from fast food restaurants, allowing the children to sample alternatives to the sugar and fat of their day-to-day lives. Each child received a pamphlet of nutrition information from popular fast-food chains so they would know how to make the most healthful choices possible in the future.  The children left with a bright smiles and T-shirts to remind them of what they learned at the event.

The project succeeded beyond the hopes of the Key Club, with 70 volunteers and more than 190 children in attendance. Also integral to the success of the event were community doctors, nutritionists, dentists, artists, police departments, and school faculty.

In the eyes of the Key Club, giving the local community a sense of togetherness is as important as the health and fitness components of the project, a trend Johnson hopes the club can re-create in similar projects in the future. “There may be minor adjustments,” he notes, “but the community involvement, number of students participating, and Key Club participation was the best I have ever seen.”—Kim Trubiro