Get Out And Play!

Creativity and drive in this area are not limited to teachers. Ron Green grew up in a housing project in Tupelo, Miss., and played minor league baseball until he left the game in 1999, at age 28. He went back home to help kids and found that his old neighborhood, Haven Acres, was overrun by gangs and drugs. "Every day was a crime wave," Green says. He went to work for the Boys and Girls Clubs of North Mississippi, and when he became director of operations he made sports and physical activity the top priority.

"I could not believe the number of kids who didn't play anything at all," says Green. "We've tried to change that. We start our summer programs every day with exercise. We put little kids in games of red light--green light. We have the older kids play gateway mix-up, which is like musical chairs, but it also teaches you the names of gateway drugs [drugs that lead to more dangerous ones] and makes you move. We try to be creative. If a kid doesn't want to compete in the usual way, we encourage him to compete against himself, against his own times or skills."

Green, who is now chief professional officer for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northwest Tennessee, helped start a club in the middle of Haven Acres. On the day in May 2003 that its doors opened, 280 kids rushed inside--to play.

In the same spirit, on a September morning in northern Connecticut, children blasted out of their gymnasium, energized by an hour of Paw Pals. They snatched their gear and barreled down the hallway toward their classrooms, one day fitter than before. In their slipstream they left a simple message: It can be done.

Child Obesity By Gender, Race And Ethnicity In 2000

Here is the breakdown, by percentage, for children in the U.S. classified as overweight (at or above 95th percentile in Body Mass Index).

�[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]