Students from Crockett Middle School participate an Exercise and Movement session during a healthy living field trip to the PEAC Health & Fitness center in Ewing on Friday, January 27, 2012. Andrew Miller/For The Times of Trenton Healthy living field trip at PEAC Health & Fitness center in Ewing gallery (8 photos)
As an English teacher in the Hamilton Township School District, Lisa Cesaro-Shaltis is concerned about ABC?s. However, she also worries about F?s ? food, fitness and fun.
A former multi-sport athlete at Steinert High School and Trenton State College, Cesaro-Shaltis has long recognized the need for a healthy lifestyle. But she?s concerned many American youths have fallen off the fitness trail and it is affecting them in all facets of their lives, including the classroom, and she has begun to take steps to get them on the right path.
With help from Whole Foods Market in West Windsor and the PEAC Health & Fitness in Ewing, Cesaro-Shaltis took 66 Crockett Middle School pupils on a field trip recently that was devoted to movement, meditation and nutrition as keys to lifelong success.
The day was a big hit with the middle-schoolers, including Trinity Barcless. ?I really liked it,? said the seventh-grader. ?I feel a lot stronger. It?s like a whole side of me opened up. I learned a lot.?
Barcless, who says her yearly activities include hockey and soccer, especially enjoyed the agility portion of the exercise segment at PEAC as well as the healthy foods tasting, most notably the strawberry salsa. ?Normally we have canned dips but that?s one (recipe) I?m going to make,? she said.
A ?straight-A? student, Barcless dreams of a future in the athletic arena or she might want to be a pediatrician.
However, the lessons learned on the field trip were especially important for the more sedentary students.
?I?m an old Phys-Ed teacher,? said Crockett principal Roger Bigos, who approved the teacher?s request and accompanied the middle-schoolers on the outing. ?(Cesaro-Shaltis) is in it to stimulate their brains. You eat the right things and you do the right things and it should be a lifelong thing. The obesity rate today is awful. It is unreal how heavy kids are today.
?Team sports aren?t for everybody. The athletes already get it; it?s the other kids we?ve got to reach.?
The 13-year-olds, of varying size and athletic ability, were inquisitive and engaged at the store and the fitness facility.
?We stayed mostly in the produce, fish and whole grains area,? Cesaro-Shaltis said of the Whole Foods tour. ?They loved it. There were so many questions.?
Laura Geltch of the PEAC marketing department agrees it?s a giant step in the right direction to get people to realize good food tastes good and exercise can be enjoyable.
?We should have a whole generation addicted to fitness,? Geltch said. ?(We) want to demystify fitness and exercise for them.?
It was an ?A? day for teachers and pupils alike.
?I learned about exercise and how to eat better and be healthier and that?s important,? said seventh-grader Jordan Burnett.
Bigos, Cesaro-Shaltis and the staffs at Whole Foods and PEAC were energized by the day, too.
?The resources are out there,? Cesaro-Shaltis said. ?People are willing to help. You just have to find it.?
?We?ve done this before, of no cost to the school,? Geltch said. ?We?re happy to provide it. Any local-area schools can contact us. It?s fun.?
The field trip comes highly recommended.
?It?s a very good day and it?s helping me out a lot,? said seventh-grader Wyatt Rue. ?It?s about making good healthy choices.? It reinforces some things the students have already been told.
?My mom has been telling me to start exercising,? said Rue, who participates in karate and plans to own a restaurant someday. ?I?m going to do it.?
?This is the first generation that (experts predict) will not outlive their parents? age,? Cesaro-Shaltis said. ?I believe you have to move to improve, and in ?strong bodies ? strong minds.?
?I?ve got to keep them moving. Moving and learning happens best at the same time, and wellness is central to the whole process.?
Contact Mary Ann Tarr at matarr@njtimes.com
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