Released: March 06, 2007

Teens Encouraged to Initiate Dialogue about Health, Fitness

MANHATTAN, Kan. – With kids’ weight and health in the news, some Kansas teens are initiating dialogue about the relationship between health and physical activity in their community.

“Making regular moderate exercise a habit typically improves mental and physical health, but making it appealing, accessible – and safe – can be a challenge,” said Elaine Johannes, Kansas State University Research and Extension youth development specialist.

Encouraging teens to add physical activity during years of growth and development when they also are forming habits that can last a lifetime can, however, improve personal health and community health now and in the future, Johannes said.

To help make it happen, The Kansas Sunflower Foundation is funding research-based development of a model walking trail and also teaching teens how to research, develop, maintain and promote trails within their community, Johannes said.

The model is a quarter-mile trail that winds through a previously undeveloped area of the Rock Springs 4-H Center near Junction City, Kan. The 4-H Center hosts about 25,000 children, teens and adults annually.

With so many visitors, Rock Springs has proven an excellent testing ground for developing the model trail with family-friendly activities, said Johannes, who has led research on the trail development with focus groups and hands-on activities, such as a flip-chart pocket pal, called “Trail Mixx,” that offers fun facts about nature along with nutrition and health tips.

Teens involved in developing the trail and using it are being encouraged to initiate dialogue with community leaders about local trail development in Altamont, Cunningham, Leavenworth, Manhattan and Ulysses, pilot communities for the project.

The Sunflower Foundation Grant also compliments a previous grant from the United States Department of Agriculture that has focused on adding nutrition, health and physical activity components to after-school programs in Morris, Meade and Ellsworth Counties.

Each of the pilot communities has some latitude in choosing how to encourage physical activity and trail development, Johannes said. In Leavenworth County, for example, Beth Hecht, K-State Research and Extension 4-H youth development agent, is working with13 teens and a volunteer to encourage exercise by using hand-held global positioning systems (GPS).

“Learning to use GPS technology, which uses a satellite system to track the user’s location, to locate a geocache, makes exercise an integral part of a 21st century treasure hunt,” Hecht said.

During one recent outing, she said, we’d walked for an hour, but hadn’t realized it.

“Locally, the geocache might be a coin, 4-H button or simply a box with a list to which people add their names,” Hecht said.

Leavenworth County teens have dubbed the educational exercise sessions the “4-H PATH,” 4-H’ers Plotting Activities Toward Health.

“The activity is new to our area and appealing to children, teens and adults because it’s a bit of an adventure,” Hecht said.

The grant-related effort to encourage healthful physical activity is being timed to piggyback with the 2007 Walk Kansas, an eight-week family-friendly K-State Research and Extension fitness program that kicks off March 11.

For more information on the grant projects, Johannes can be contacted at 785-532-5773.

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Nancy Peterson
nancyp@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News