Middle-school students count walking as important part of fitness routines

Nearly 200 small red pedometers deserve a rest today.

The electronic devices, called "stepometers" under the nationwide Live It! fitness and nutrition program, were clipped to the belts of more than 175 students and some 20 staff members at Somers Middle School this week - minus, of course, stepometers that were lost or broken.

But the young wearers of those stepometers seem determined to do anything but rest.

To a large degree, school nurse Helyna Kretske sees that as a good thing, not just for her schools at Somers and Lakeside, but for the rest of the valley.

"I would like to see all the schools that would like to participate do this in the same week," she said, envisioning prizes for highest level of participation, community rallies and the high-level visibility that accompanies initiatives such as Flathead CARE's Red Ribbon Week.

For now, she is content to start small.

Kretske, though a 14-year veteran of the nursing profession, is new to the school-nursing beat this year.

She wanted to do something that could make a lasting change for her young charges. She liked the idea of getting the whole school in on an exercise and nutrition program, but was looking for a centerpiece project.

Her husband, Gene, who works for Coca Cola in Kalispell, mentioned the Live It! program recently instituted nationwide by Coca Cola. It's broken into two parts: Step With It, encouraging physical activity by recording at least 10,000 steps a day, and Fit It In, which has students try new foods that are packed with good nutrition.

The nurse in Kretske liked it.

An entire education program goes along with both components, teaching what the body needs physically and nutritionally. And it's all free, thanks to the partnership Coca Cola formed with the School Nutrition Association, The President's Challenge and National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

The teacher in her loved it.

She got immediate buy-in from her superintendent and principal.

Teachers began dreaming up ways they could incorporate the 10,000-step goal into math calculations, geography projects and fitness lessons in P.E. class. Kretske conducted a health fair in the school last Wednesday, during which she calculated a general body mass index value for each student.

To simplify logistics, Kretske conducted the program only at the middle school and not at Lakeside Elementary, where she also is the school nurse.

Middle school students on Wednesday were sold on the program.

"So far, everyone has considered the stepometer a big deal. They look at it every now and then" to check daily progress, eighth-grader Hannah Wahlert said. She and her classmates are working hard at it, she added, "especially since they're offering Blacktail passes."

The immediate incentive - two ski passes at Blacktail Mountain for each grade, and another two for the staff - sweetened the project while students laid the groundwork for long-term benefit.

In one component of the plan, girls who record 11,000 steps and boys who tally 13,000 steps a day for six weeks also can receive the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.

Wahlert, a runner, volleyball and basketball player, and track athlete, said she has been running more after school and doing more walking at home.

Tawnika Uskoski said she put in some time on the treadmill and jumping rope after she got home from school Tuesday. The eighth-grader has been going up and down the stairs a lot more, too.

But she appreciated the food samples that Kretske handed out at lunch each day - Monday was raw, sliced zucchini with ranch dressing; Tuesday was kiwi, a big favorite of many students; Wednesday was jicama, or what most students called "Mexican potatoes"; Thursday was mangoes; and Friday was fennel, a celerylike plant with a leafy top and bulbous root end.

Kretske said Blacktail Grocery generously donated all the foods, and even special-ordered several of them just so they would be available this week.

"It's good food," Uskoski said. But will she change activity and diet permanently?

"I'll try," she grinned.

A seventh-grade athlete, Ian Gillespie, was having a good week.

"It seems there's been excitement through the whole school," he said, "and the competition adds to it. For me personally, I want to see what I can do."

He thought he could make it to12,000 or 15,000 steps a day. But, he discovered after a day of school and a basketball game Tuesday, he racked up 31,000 steps.

Classmate Sarah Jerger, who has dance class after school, was crowding in on 20,000 steps.

"It's fun to see what you get at the end of the day, and say, 'Yeah, I made my goal,'" Jerger said. Everybody "kicks it up a notch when there's prizes and competition."

She, too, has been a big fan of the new food samples. "It's good to try new stuff," she said.

Sixth-grader Brianna Kretske (yes, she is the nurse's daughter), said Monday's introductory assembly was a fun start to the week, especially when the whole school did the "YMCA" song with actions.

The rest of the week, she explained, students could tally points for all activities in addition to walking. A chart provided with program materials gives equivalents for bicycling, trampoline jumping, aerobics, hacky sack, ping-pong and more.

Michael Managhan, another sixth-grader, said he had been playing a lot of basketball and jumping around the room. He even discovered that shuffling adds up to more steps and works his legs harder.

He was a fan of the food, too.

"I like the zucchini, because we have a lizard at home and he likes it," Managhan said. "Most kids thought the (unusual) choices wouldn't be good, but they actually are good."

After the program ends and as the school year wraps up, Kretske hopes to remeasure each student's body-mass index to see what kind of progress they made.

She also will evaluate the program to see how it can be improved and adapted to a new group of students next year.

Kretske invites everyone interested in getting this started in their own schools to give her a call at Somers Middle School at 857-3661.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.