Harbor View Elementary receives national award for fighting childhood obesity
October 8, 2015
CHARLESTON, SC – Harbor View Elementary School received the 2015 National Healthy Schools BRONZE Award for leading comprehensive health, physical activity, and wellness efforts during the 2014-2015 school year. The Alliance for a Healthier Generation recognized Harbor View Elementary with the National Healthy Schools Award at its annual Leaders Summit recently in Washington, D.C. for transforming its environment into a healthier place. To earn the Award Harbor View Elementary improved its nutrition and wellness services and physical activity programs to meet or exceed stringent standards set by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Healthy Schools Program.
“Winning this award is truly an honor for our school,” said Lara Latto, principal at Harbor View. “Our Wellness Committee is continuously meeting to determine ways that our school can become a healthier place for everyone and to promote lifelong, healthy habits in our students.”
Ten years ago the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association partnered to address one of the most important issues facing the United States, childhood obesity, which can lead to grave health consequences. The result of that partnership, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, is celebrating 10 years of creating healthier environments for more than 20 million children across the country.
“It’s an honor to recognize a record-number of schools who are at the forefront of the fight against childhood obesity,” said Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation. “The seed that was planted a decade ago when the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association joined together has grown into a thriving program that is truly building a healthier generation.”
The Healthy Schools Program provides schools guidance, professional development, access to national experts and evidence-based resources and tools to help them create and sustain healthy school environments. Schools are eligible for Bronze, Silver or Gold National Healthy Schools Awards based on their level of achievement. The Alliance’s Healthy Schools Program is the nation’s largest school-based obesity prevention initiative, reaching more than 17 million students by working with more than 30,000 schools across the nation to increase quality physical activity, health education and healthy eating.
“Research tells us that healthy students learn better– performing better on tests, getting better grades, attending school more often and behaving better in class,” said Dr. Howell Wechsler, CEO of the Alliance for a Healthier for a Healthier Generation. “The award-winning schools should be applauded for making the health of their students and the future a priority.”
Harbor View Elementary School is the first school in Charleston County School District to receive the National Healthy Schools Award.
The Alliance launched its Healthy Schools Program in 2006 with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Find out more at HealthierGeneration.org.
