PABLO — It takes a spark to start a fire, and Pablo Elementary physical education teacher Darci Nice needs some help striking a big ‘ol match.

After reading about the Henkel Helps Kids Get Fit contest in an education magazine, Nice wrote an essay, putting her school’s hat in the ring for the chance to win $25,000 to improve health and fitness education, equipment, technology, resources and services for its students and community. Beating out applications from 2,100 schools nationwide, Pablo Elementary was the only Montana school to make the top ten. Now, it all comes down to online votes. The school with the most votes by Dec. 12 wins.

As of Nov. 22, Pablo Elementary sits in sixth place among schools in much more densely populated areas of the country, like Frederick, MD, Maricopa, Ariz., Tampa, Fla. and the Bronx, NY.

Of Pablo Elementary’s 261 students, 72 percent are American Indian, Nice wrote in her essay. According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control in February of 2004, the prevalence of diabetes in Montana is more than twice that for all adults in the United States and this number is hitting the American Indian population the hardest, she said.

While her third and fourth grade students have physical education every other week for the entire week, kindergarten through second graders only participate in PE classes every three weeks for the entire week.

“This is not enough to fight against an epidemic in overweight, obese and diabetic students,” Nice said.

It’s all about the lifestyle, she added, which is why Nice dreams of incorporating a Peaceful Playgrounds Program to keep students active with lots of opportunities to get moving, a walking program with a walking path and fitness stations along the path to encourage family and community involvement, and finally, an after school program incorporating health and fitness activities.

“We have the slide and we have the swings, but that only lasts for so long,” she said. “I’m not into that run around the track kind of thing. You can get the same effect by running around and playing tag.”

With the goal of facilitating fun physical education for her students, Nice’s teaching philosophy utilizes a variety of games that make students exercise without even knowing it.

“I am a true believer in having fun with whatever activities we are doing,” she said.

Recently, Nice brought her Nintendo Wii into school and hooked it up to a TV so that her classes could all play a game called “Just Dance.”

“They had a blast and it was a work out,” she said. “We talked about the calories we burned and the healthier bodies we were creating just by dancing and having fun with our friends.”

In order to really make a difference in her students’ lives, Nice knows she will have to teach them lifelong skills that they can bring home to their families, lessons they really believe in and changes they can realistically achieve.

“Especially with the level of diabetes in our community, I would love to do an after school program about nutrition,” she said.

Teaching students how to make healthy choices with food; how to incorporate healthy substitutes in their traditional native foods; sending home information from what she does so caretakers have the opportunity to make changes as well… all that and more could be accomplished if Pablo won the Henkel contest.

With a yearly budget of $300 (less than half of the national average of $764), Nice said it’s difficult to even keep up with maintaining equipment and just plain impossible to purchase anything new or start up a program, like frisbee golf or tennis.

“As I sit here imagining what $25,000 would mean to our school I am so overwhelmed I don’t even know where to begin,” she wrote in her essay.

Nice did her part, now it’s up to the rest of us to help support her.

Visit www.henkelhelps.com to vote for Pablo Elementary, read her application essay and watch a video Nice made with a digital camera she won for placing in the contest’s top 10.