University of Minnesota Athletics
Student Athletes Participate In P.A.L.A Program
4/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
In the month of March, Minnesota student-athletes attended 16 different Minneapolis Public Schools as a part of the school district’s Presidents Active Lifestyle Awards program. P.A.L.A. is a program designed to encourage children to exercise and live a healthy lifestyle.
Over the course of the month, 21 different student-athletes attended the Minneapolis Public Schools for the P.A.L.A. programs. These student-athletes represented 12 different University of Minnesota sports teams and included: women’s tennis, women’s hockey, rowing, volleyball, football, wrestling, soccer, men’s track/cross country, women’s track/cross country, women’s basketball, women’s swimming/diving and softball.
In order to be given the award, children need to exercise for 60 minutes, for five days a week, for six weeks. After the students exercised, they recorded their physical activity on their P.A.L.A. cards and brought them back to school. The U of M student-athletes congratulated the elementary school students on their dedication to exercising, and also talked about the importance of eating healthy and studying hard in school. Toward the end of the month, the student-athletes assisted in the awards presentation by giving the children who completed all their P.A.L.A. cards a badge, certificate, and medal.
“The P.A.L.A. program has had the biggest impact on Minneapolis Elementary Physical Education programs of any program in the history of our department.” said Minneapolis Public Schools Director of Physical Education Jan Braaten.
For the past six years, the University of Minnesota has teamed up with the Minneapolis Public Schools to promote a healthy lifestyle to children. The General Mills Foundation and Achieve!, Minneapolis provide financial support for this program and take part promoting exercise in the P.A.L.A assemblies as well. Since the introduction of this program, over 40,000 Minneapolis Public School students have received the President’s Active Lifestyle Award.
This program has done more than impact just the children. Alyssa Trelstad, a rower at Minnesota, said, “The P.A.L.A. Assemblies showed me how excited the kids were about exercising and being healthy. They are a great inspiration for me!”
Written by CHAMPS Life Skills intern and Gopher swimmer, Andrea Hanson
