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Spring 2009 roared in like a lion for We Can!™, bringing a major new partnership with one of the world’s largest franchises, and budding new opportunities with potential and existing partners.
 On March 25, celebrity boxer Laila Ali and soccer great Tab Ramos joined SUBWAY® spokesman Jared Fogle to help We Can! and SUBWAY® Restaurants launch a new partnership at a National P.E.P. (Play more, Eat right, Push away the screen) Rally. Hundreds of kids, parents, teachers, and members of the media learned about We Can! messages and activities. For details, visit this newsletter’s Partner Profile or visit the We Can! Website. You can also see more photos of the event on our site.
With more than 50 new sites signed up in the first three months of the new year, the energy and enthusiasm powering our We Can! movement keeps building, and the spring season is sure to bring renewed vigor and outdoor activities at all of our existing sites.
Turning off your TV, or computer, is the focus of Turnoff Week, April 20 to 26. We Can! once again joins the nonprofit Center for SCREEN-TIME Awareness to encourage folks to step away from their screens and raise public awareness about the negative impact of excessive screen time. Children and teens who spend more than a couple of hours a day in front of a TV, video, or computer screen, are more likely to be overweight than their peers who limit screen time. We encourage your community site to participate. For more information on how your site can launch its own Turnoff Week activities in April, or during a second Turnoff Week planned for September 2009, visit the CSTA Web site at www.tvturnoff.org or call (202) 333-9220. Mention that you are from a We Can!
community site and receive a discount on bulk materials.
As always, you can visit the We Can! Web site for much more. If you have any questions, or need materials, contact us online through the site.
On March 25, We Can! and SUBWAY® Restaurants launched a new partnership at a National P.E.P. (Play more, Eat right, Push away the screen) Rally. We bring you all the details—from which celebrities were present to what kinds of activities took place and who participated.
We Can! has registered more than 50 new sites since the beginning of the new year. It looks to be a fruitful spring for We Can!, taking the number of registrants beyond 1,065 in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and into 11 other countries. Just take a look at the map below, which is becoming considerably more crowded.
Spring is busily sweeping in site growth and other developments, stateside.
West Virginia: Known for being wild and wonderful, the Mountain State has become wonderfully enthusiastic about adopting We Can! in its schools—it’s the “sequel” to a story from our last newsletter, about grants being offered to educators and schools interested in running We Can! programs. This update tells you how those grants were snapped up like hotcakes!
Georgia: Peach trees aren’t the only thing budding in Georgia. The Center for Helping Obesity in Children End Successfully (C.H.O.I.C.E.S) is bringing We Can! back into the public eye with Parent Program classes and an upcoming expo, while another long-term community site is bulking up on ideas and other ways to breathe new life into its popular We Can!-based programming.
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The partnership with SUBWAY® Restaurants is serving up another great benefit to We Can! in the form of a marketing campaign through Scholastic, Inc. Scholastic—which reaches millions of teachers, parents and students—has created co-branded We Can! print and online materials for their subscribers, and for you. Those materials include a “You Are What You Eat” poster, reproducible activities for students, and take-away tip sheets for parents. The campaign also includes a Make It Happen contest for kids and schools, where kids write essays about their favorite physical activities. Check out the new materials, and learn how your school can win $5,000 from Make It Happen, by visiting scholastic.com/wecan.
Pep up the spirits of your local parents, kids, and partners by hosting your own We Can! P.E.P. Rally. No cheerleaders are necessary, although you can invite local celebrities to help you get your community pumped up about your programming. Simply start by checking out the We Can! P.E.P. Rally-in-a-Box” kit. It’s an easy guide to making a rally happen, and includes ideas and resources for your event, including sample letters, a media relations guide, games and instructions, and a P.E.P. Pledge for event attendees. Download it now. |
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Spring—it’s not just a time for cleaning, it’s a chance for you and your kids to get away from the TV or computer screen, and stretch your legs in the great outdoors. That’s why this spring we bring you tips from a We Can! partner that’s getting families to rediscover unstructured play and interaction with the natural world—the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).
NWF has a Web site devoted to its "Green Hour" campaign, which encourages parents to set aside at least one hour a day for physical activities outdoors. Following are some pointers to help parents keep things interesting once they get their kids into the “wild”:
Tip #1: Follow maps or make your own maps of favorite places.
Tip #2: Imitate the animals you see: scamper like a squirrel, hop like a rabbit, soar like a bird.
Tip #3: Learn an outdoor skill such as skiing, snowshoeing, canoeing, snorkeling, or rock climbing.
Tip #4: Make drums or other musical instruments out of natural objects.
Tip #5: Collaborate with others to accomplish something outdoors, such as planting a garden or paddling a canoe.
For pointers from the Green Hour Parent Guide or to find a park near you, visit www.greenhour.org. |
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