3/23/2009

CA Governors Council appoints 135 Seventh and Eighth graders as Health & Fitness Ambassadors
Middle school students in Kaiser Permanente Program to help lead fight against obesity.

Baldwin Park – Jake Steinfeld, Chairman of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, announced today the appointment of 135 middle school students as Health and Fitness Ambassadors to help further the Council’s work in establishing California as the “nation’s fitness state.” The 135 Ambassadors are members of Kaiser Permanente’s Hippocrates Circle Program, a program helping aspiring students from diverse backgrounds pursue their dreams of becoming physicians. Each new Health and Fitness Ambassador will be responsible for encouraging other students at their school to be physically active, eat healthy foods, and say no to drugs and alcohol.

“It’s a thrill for me to welcome these Health and Fitness Ambassadors to our team. We want all Californians from Baldwin Park to Menlo Park and from Oceanside to Riverside to feel the benefits that come from being physically active and eating well,” said Steinfeld. “Engaging middle school students as Health and Fitness Ambassadors provides us a new and innovative way to encourage children to take control of their own health. I can’t think of anything that is more important to the future of this great state.”

Dr. Jeffrey Weisz, the Executive Medical Director and Chairman of the Board of Southern California Permanente Medical Group, said “we believe that exercise and eating well are two of the best forms of preventive medicine available. As we educate the next generation of physicians, we need to give them the tools to promote exercise and physical activity, particularly in communities where obesity and inactivity are more acute.”

The first order of business for the new Health and Fitness Ambassadors will be to encourage their fellow students to take the Governor’s Fitness Challenge of being physically active 30-60 minutes a day, at least 3 days a week for a month. The Governor’s Challenge is a contest among California’s k-12 schools that provides incentives for individual students, parents and teachers as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars of school based awards including a brand new fitness center worth $100,000 to the winning elementary school, middle school and high school. So far more than 250,000 California students from over 1,000 California schools have signed up to participate in the 2009 Governor’s Challenge. Steinfeld is confident that with the support of the new Health and Fitness Ambassadors the Council will be able to reach its goal of engaging 300,000 students in the Challenge by May 31st. Schools interested in joining the 2009 Governor’s Challenge Competition can sign up at www.CalGovCouncil.org

Prior to being named as Health and Fitness Ambassadors, the students heard a college-level lecture on important role that exercise plays in the preventative medicine and were instructed on how they can begin positively impact the health and well-being of their fellow students immediately. As members of the Hippocrates Circle Program the students also receive mentoring from practicing physicians, tour a Kaiser medical center, visit a local medical school, and interact with medical students.

Steinfeld and Dr. Weisz hope these 7th and 8th graders, by virtue of being students themselves, will be uniquely able to communicate the benefits of leading a healthy lifestyle to other students in their communities. Recognizing that only one third of California youth are considered fit today, Steinfeld and Weisz hope this innovative peer-to-peer model of promoting fitness will become replicated throughout California.

Kaiser Permanente is a founding sponsor of the Governors’ Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. In addition to providing the non-profit, non-partisan Council with on-going support that enables it to promote physical activity and fitness to millions of Californians each year, Kaiser Permanente has been the leading medical group supporting the Council’s Exercise is Medicine initiative. Following the leadership of Dr. Weisz and Kaiser’s Dr. Robert Sallis nearly 3,500 Kaiser Permanente physicians in Southern California have pledged their support of the Exercise is Medicine initiative and have agreed to prescribe exercise to patients who would benefit from being more physically active. Sallis, the immediate past-president of the American College of Sports Medicine, and the person most responsible for developing the Exercise is Medicine initiative, provided the Governor’s Council Health and Fitness Ambassadors with information on the long-term effects that physical activity has on their health, as well as the more impact it has on their self-esteem and academic success.

Participating Schools Health & Fitness Ambassador Training:

• Crozier Middle School (Inglewood)
• Earhart Middle (Riverside)
• Gage Junior High (Riverside)
• Holland Middle School (Baldwin Park)
• Jones Junior High School (Baldwin Park)
• La Tijera Middle School (Inglewood)
• Lawrence Gifted Magnet (Chatsworth)
• Mesa Union School (Somis)
• Villa Fundamental Intermediate School (Santa Ana)

About the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
The California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting physical activity for all Californians with an emphasis on children and youth. Governor Schwarzenegger is the Honorary Chairman and Council members include Chairman Jake Steinfeld, Vice Chairman Peter Vidmar, and California sports legends such as Laila Ali, Tony Hawk, and Michelle Kwan. Founding sponsors are Applied Materials, Anthem Blue Cross Foundation and Kaiser Permanente. For more information visit www.CalGovCouncil.org

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is one of the nation’s leading integrated health plans. Founded in 1945, it is a nonprofit, group practice prepayment program with Southern California headquarters in Pasadena, California. Kaiser Permanente serves the health care needs of 3.3 million members in Southern California. Today it encompasses the nonprofit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and their subsidiaries, and the for-profit Southern California Permanente Medical Group. Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California Region includes more than 55,800 technical, administrative and clerical employees and caregivers, and more than 6,400 physicians representing all specialties. More information about Kaiser Permanente can be found at www.kaiserpermanente.org