The Prince George Cougars Hockey Club are tackling the issue of unhealthy living in children by revising a program that is now entering its sixth year. During a period when youth are spending increased amounts of time online and in front of a screen, activities like exercise and healthy eating can fall by the wayside. In partnership with the Spirit Of The North Healthcare Foundation and the Northern Health Authority, The Spirit Of Healthy Kids School Program is an initiative created to educate youth on healthy living.
In past years members of the Cougars would travel to local elementary schools to talk to students in a group setting about healthy decisions the players have made in their lives. After that the Cougars would ask the children to complete a two week challenge where they would track their healthy decisions daily. While that type of engagement is not available at the moment the program has adapted and become virtual to now cover all of the Northern Health region and allow over 200 schools to participate in the program.
When asked about how going virtual will differ from years past with the SOHK program, Andy Beesly, the Vice President of Business for the Prince George Cougars said, “ we wanted to doing something completely outrageous and really blow it out of the water” and that “ the big difference is that we can’t do it face to face….we had to create a mini movie”.
The Prince George Cougars video has members of the team cover a variety of topics like healthy eating, daily physical activity, maintaining mental health and more. At the end of the video there is an invitation and details to the two week challenge where students will track their physical activity, time spent reading as well as healthy choices they have made that day. The school with the highest level of participation will win $5,000.
The deadline to submit track sheets is March 16th.
For more info and access to the tracking sheets please click visit https://pgcougars.com/spirit-of-healthy-kids-school-program/
Here is the full interview with Prince George Cougars' Andy Beesly