Youth club program building healthy kids

MICHELLE KNIGHT/Acorn Newspapers BUILDING MUSCLE—Joey Ponce, 10, left, and his friend Brandon Garza, 11, do some push-ups on a recent afternoon at the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club. Members of the youth club are participating in a new fitness program that teaches youngsters lifelong strategies for staying fit and eating healthy. Ten-year-old Joey Ponce said he can do 100 sit-ups now. His best friend Brandon Garza, 11, said he can perform 50 pushups.

The boys, members of the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club, are participating in the youth club's new fitness program.

Joey, a fifth-grader at Dos Caminos Elementary School, said he's learned how to read food labels for calorie, sugar and sodium content.

"You have to be smart what you pick, and you have to watch your weight," he said.

A sixth-grader at University Charter Middle School, Brandon said that because he's playing video games less often and riding his bike more frequently he's dropped a couple of pounds.

The boys say playing sports is a good way to exercise.

The club started the free yearlong fitness program in July, funded by a $90,000 grant from Anthem Blue Cross and WellPoint Foundation. The fitness program seeks to combat childhood obesity by educating club members and their parents on the benefits of exercise and good nutrition. The program includes cooking classes with a professional chef.

Club members pledge to stay away from sugary soft drinks and junk food, but, for lifelong success, it's critical that parents and other adults in the children's lives, including club staff, model healthy behavior, club President Greg Stuart and nurse practitioner Cynthia Fiacco said.

"What we've learned is that the adults need to set a better example," Stuart said. "In general, what I see is we're not doing it. That's a big issue."

Fiacco, a club volunteer who's tracking the children's progress in the fitness program, said evaluating the type of food available at the club through the vending machine and the snack bar is the next step in preparing the children to make lifelong healthy choices.

"If we tell them no sugar drinks, then we shouldn't be selling sugar drinks," she said.

The fitness program is one of the free services the club offers that's made it more popular than ever before, Stuart said.

Two years ago, at its Camarillo and Somis locations, the club served an average of 245 children a day; today, 382 children on average come daily, Stuart said.

"I think the quality of the programs has dramatically improved," he said.

Stuart often asks the children what they'd be doing if they weren't at the club. One young girl's response was memorable, he said.

"I'd be dying to get back," she told him.

For more information about the Boys & Girls Club of Camarillo, call (805) 482-8113.