Happy 1st day of summer!  This week, we highlight fun and innovative programs to promote fitness this summer:

Work looks like play at PE teachers institute (Source:  INDenverTimes.com)  Award-winning teachers gather to learn creative approaches to teaching and assessing physical education. 

Girl Scout camp focuses on healthy habits (Source:  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)  Camp encourages healthy lifestyles.

Public invited to use Des Moines high school workout rooms (Source:  Des Moines Register)  Free use of new school fitness equipment made possible by a federal grant.

How might programs such as these come to life in your community? 

This week, we focus on the role of schools in facilitating physically active lifestyles:

2010 Shape of the Nation Report:  Status of Physical Education in the US  (Source:  NASPE)  The National Association for Sport and Physical Education and the American Heart Association have collaborated to present current state-specific data on physical education in schools. 

Changes in liability laws could open up schools for community recreation  (Source:  University of Florida News)  A Florida professor, and author of a forthcoming study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, explains that minor legislative changes surrounding school building use can positively impact families’ recreation options. 

In your opinion, how can the potential for schools' positive influence be realized without creating significant burden?

This week, we highlight new state-level physical activity data from the CDC, a successful walking school bus program in Missouri, and Instant Recess in the office environment:

State Indicator Report on Physical Activity 2010  (Source:  CDC)  Information on physical activity behavior, policy and environmental supports within each state. 

Missouri takes on childhood obesity one step at a time  (Source:  Columbia Missourian) 

Columbia, Missouri school district implements a walking school bus program as part of a school-based childhood obesity movement.