The fifth and final $10,000 award in Logansport Memorial Hospital’s 5-year Body Mass Index (BMI) study of Cass County school children was presented to Franklin Elementary, the participating school with the greatest decrease in average BMI. This award was made possible by a grant from the McTaggart Charitable Trust.
“The BMI project has been a very important initiative of the Foundation in working to reduce childhood obesity,” commented Michael Bowditch, LMHF Board President. “It is essential that kids learn the importance of good health habits at an early age. This initiative has directly aligned with the mission of the Foundation and has also helped our local schools achieve great results with our kids. We are very proud of this project and the data it has provided.”
The purpose of the Healthy Kids BMI Initiative has been to measure the improvement in the health of Cass County school children through a five-year BMI study. Elementary schools who participated this year were All Saints, Caston, Columbia, Fairview, Franklin, Landis and Pioneer. Columbia and Lincoln Middle Schools were also part of the Healthy Kids BMI Initiative. All schools in Cass County were encouraged to participate.
“Our goal is to determine if the emphasis placed on proper nutrition and exercise will help children choose healthy habits and decrease the incidence of obesity that leads to diabetes and other detrimental chronic diseases,” explains Vicki Byrd, Vice-President of Planning and Development at Logansport Memorial Hospital. “The information we have collected from this project may now serve as the basis for future initiatives that impact the health habits of our children in different ways. Wherever we go next, we are grateful for the enthusiastic support from our local schools over these past five years and hope to continue building on those partnerships to address future health needs for our children in the community.”
