IPRA and American Cancer Society Partnership Results in a

healthy fusion

The Illinois Park & Recreation Association and the American Cancer Society have partnered to provide recreation professionals in Illinois with a unique toolkit designed to fight the growing childhood obesity epidemic. Camp Fusion is a turnkey healthy living and activity toolkit that can be incorporated into day camp or youth programming initiatives.

With obesity on the rise in the United States, it is crucial that recreation professionals focus on physical activity and healthy living for children. Regular physical activity during the childhood and adolescent years improves strength and endurance, helps build healthy bones and muscles, helps control weight, reduces anxiety and stress, increases self-esteem and may improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Positive experiences with physical activity at a young age help lay the basis for getting into a lifelong pattern of physical activity. Children should get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity five days a week. Unfortunately, participation in physical activity declines strikingly as children age, and vigorous activities, such as basketball, may become replaced by more sedentary activities, such as playing video games, watching television or using a computer.

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Get the Toolkit

Included in the Camp Fusion toolkit is an overview of all Camp Fusion program and activities for kindergarten through 5th grade, as well as age-specific, turnkey programming ideas. The Camp Fusion toolkit is broken up into programming ideas for kindergarten through 2nd grade and 3rd grade through 5th grade age groups. Each group has activity lesson plans, craft ideas, physical activity lesson plans and healthy and fun recipes.

To view the online Camp Fusion kits free of charge, you must be an IPRA member and logged into the IPRA site with your member name and password. You can download PDFs of each section of the Camp Fusion kit by going to the IPRA's online Resource Library and searching for the Camp Fusion information under the Childhood Obesity section. Downloading specific sections of the kit is recommended for those professionals wishing to make additional photocopies to be used in youth programming activities.

You also have the option of ordering a pre-assembled, ready-to-use Camp Fusion kit for only $20 (for IPRA members) or $40 (for non-members). Ordering a pre-assembled kit is a great idea for agencies wishing to have a kit on hand and ready to use as a resource. To access an order form, go online to: www.ilipra.org/forms/CampFusionOrderForm.pdf.

Making an Impact

To date, 30 Camp Fusion toolkits have been purchased and more than 90 PDF versions have been downloaded. The IPRA is anxious to gain feedback from youth programmers about the success of the program, as well as ideas for improvement.

Camp Fusion may be a step your agency can take to help eliminate the childhood obesity epidemic. If you have any questions about implementing the Camp Fusion program, please contact the Illinois Park & Recreation Association at (630) 376-1911.

Weighty Statistics

--  The prevalence of overweight children ages 6 to 11 has increased from 7 percent in 1980 to 16 percent in 2002.

--  Most children and adolescents spend more time watching television than they spend in the classroom.

--  Children and adolescents who are overweight are more likely to be overweight or obese as adults.

--  Overweight adults are at an increased risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, some types of cancer and gall bladder disease.

Camp Fusion Objectives