Youngsters Learn Value of Exercise During Walk to School

Bringing Knowledge to Life! / Partner Report /
Ontonagon County
Courthouse, 725 Greenland Road
Ontonagon, Michigan49953
Phone: 906-884-4386 / E-mail:
Fax:906-884-2582
Web:msue.msu.edu/ontonagon
Director: Frank Wardynski
January 2009

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Youngsters learn value of exercise during “Walk to School”

Most Ontonagon County children ride the bus to school and never have the opportunity to enjoy an early morning stroll.In October, Ontonagon County MSU Extension teamed up withparents, teachers and students to participate in the annual “Walk to School Day” event.

“Walk to School Day” is an international event sponsored in Michigan by the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports and the Michigan departments of Community Health and Transportation.

Walking to school encourages physical fitness, raises awareness of traffic/walking safety, creates environmental awareness of air quality around schools, and provides a quality experience for families and communities.

Despite the unusually dark and rainy morning, nearly 50 “Walk to School Day” participants met at four sites in Ontonagonwhere adult volunteers lead groups of students to school. For extra safety, the Ontonagon County Sheriff’s Department escorted one group of children to the elementary school.

During the walk, Extension staff emphasized the importance of physical activity, choosing the safest route to school, and practicing safety during walking or riding a bicycle to and from school.

As the groups arrived at school, fourmembers from the Ontonagon Area Junior-Senior High SchoolTeen Asset Never Grow Old(TANGO) group distributed water bottles courtesy of the MSU Extension’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Nutrition Education (SNAP-ED).

Extension and schoolstaff also arranged for parentsand volunteers to join the students for a breakfast at the school.

Parents expressed appreciation for the great community event and the opportunity to spend extra time with their children. Even with the rain and puddle-jumping, the children enjoyed their walk to school with many wishing they could walk every day.

4-H means leadership, service and baking cookies

For the third year, 4-H program associate Jody Maloney, and SNAP-ED program associates Kathie Preiss and Stacey Somero, brought after-school alive with the smell of cooking and baking in 4-H Cooking Club.

More than 20 boys and girls from kindergarten through fourth grade, along withthree teen leaders, participated in this year’s club at the Ontonagon Area Elementary School.

Each year the Cooking Club has a theme; this year that theme wascookie baking. The club members made gingerbread houses from scratch, which were entered into a community gingerbread house contest sponsored by 4-H and Ontonagon's Hometown Christmas committee.

Children also baked several different types of traditional holiday cookies, which they served to parents, grandparents and siblings at the annual cooking club family reception.

In past years,the themes included breakfast, baking, dinners and simple snacks.

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4-H--continued

More importantly than mixing dough, the cooking club teaches childrenhow to read a recipe, prepare healthy foods, and use safe preparation and kitchen practices.

Cooking club members not only learn their way around the kitchen but also learn about helping their communities through service. For this year's service project, club members made and decorated sugar cookies for the Ontonagon County St. Nicholas project. The project helpsindividuals and families in need during the holidayswith food baskets and gifts.

Cooking club teaches children how to be confident and safe in the kitchen, a lifeskill they will need to become healthy youth and adults. As club members grow into teenagers, they also have the opportunity to remain in the club as teen leaders, mentoring young chefs, while learning how to be responsible leaders and role models.

Cooking club is sticky, gooey, and totally hands-on fun and learning for Ontonagon County kids.

4-H keeps it green with bag collection

In October the National 4-H Council named “Keeping It Green” the theme for celebrating National 4-H Week (Oct. 5-11).

Ontonagon County 4-H responded by initiating a community service project focused on plastic bags.The county has no recycling drop-off points for plastic bags, while local grocery and retail stores use hundreds of bags every day. So in one month, thousands of plastic bags that could be recycled, get thrown into the landfill, or worse, become litter.

After a bit of research, 4-H program associate Jody Maloney created a “Pennies for Plastic Bags” project. For the donation of one penny per bag, people could recycle their plastic shopping bags and 4-H leaders would deliver them to a neighboring county with a Walmart recycling facility.

Walmart is one of only a few corporations that actually recycles plastic bags to make new items. With the money collected, clubs could buy reusable "green" shopping bags for their families, eliminating the need for plastic bags in the future.

During October, Ontonagon County 4-H collected more than 3,000 plastic bags--enough to fill a station wagon three times.

The Ewen Fun and Fitness 4-H club collected enough bags and pennies to purchase 17 green shopping bags, which will keep 1,700 plastic bags out of Upper Michigan's landfills and streams and prevent damage to wildlife habitats. At one drop-off point alone the 4-H’ers collected more than 500 plastic bags during the month.

Because of the overwhelming public response to the project, Ontonagon County 4-H will continue to recycle at drop-off locations year-round.Ontonagon County 4-H youth have helped to keep Ontonagon County green.

Members of the Ewen Fun and Fitness 4-H club show the reusable shopping bags that their families now use to bring home groceries.