School earns gym gear through fitness challenge

James Mc­Queen Public School here has suc­cessfully completed the Go Active Fitness Challenge, earn­ing $500 in Wintergreen physical education credits to use towards purchasing new gym equipment.

More than 28,600 students from 378 schools across Onta­rio have successfully com­plet­ed the challenge. It was de­signed to promote physical activity amongst stud­ents.

By participating and exercising regularly, Ontario students were able to improve on all six compulsory exer­cis­es, in­cluding crunches, push-ups, 50-metre dash, shuttle run, stand­ing long jump and an endurance run. Participants' scores were measured in May and combined with those achiev­ed in September to de­termine their im­provement.

Inspired by the Canadian Fitness Awards, the Go Active! Fitness Challenge is designed to promote physical activity among students, and is available to elementary schools .  Each class that registers at www.fitness­chal­lenge.ca will receive a kit with all the necessary materials to conduct the challenge in their school.

Eligible classes that com­plete the challenge and submit their results on the fitness challenge website will earn $200 in Wintergreen Phys-ed credits per participating class, up to a maximum of $500 per school.