It’s official, we’re on the airwaves!

Check out our homepage for the latest and greatest on Tri 4 Schools…our two interviews with Channel 27 and Channel 15 news!  This was such a great opportunity for us to get our message out in the community and share our mission.  I have a few people to thank for helping us:

– Sara Stoltenberg, Sara Noonan, and Leigh Mills at Channel 15 – they were instrumental in getting us on to Channel 15’s 5pm news broadcast

– Kacie Krueger and Elishah Oesch at Channel 27 – Kacie helped me connect with Elishah to get a spot on Wake Up Wisconsin

– Rachel and Bret at Fourier Fitness – they provided us with footage to support our interview material of kids training in their youth training class.

– Danny, Molly, and Dawn Hagens – thanks for coming on the 5pm news broadcast with me and Dawn for helping prep them…they did a fabulous job!

We are now in the beginning of talks with Channel 3, who is starting a new kids health campaign, to see if we can help talk about the benefits of youth triathlon and our organization.  We’ll see how things go there!

Otherwise, we’ve been working hard to make our way to track meets, swim meets, and local races to get the word out about us.  Right now we have 41 kids signed up, and we’d really like to get that number up to 100 in the next few weeks!  The great thing is that I’ve been hearing from lots of local triathletes and parents that they’ve heard of us and are going to sign up.  As a first year event, those are great things to hear – we really want to get our name out there and encourage lots of kids to sign up.  The more kids that sign up, the more money that we’ll be able to contribute to schools!

In other news, I read an interesting article the other day from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (a prominent organization funding youth health studies and leading the charge against childhood obesity) about recommendations on preventing obesity in toddlers and young children.  The statistics in this article are alarming, and I recommend you check it out: https://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/childrens-health/articles/2011/06/23/ways-to-curb-childhood-obesity-outlined-in-us-report.  The key theme to me is that there is not ONE way alone to solve this problem; it needs to be a solution that is well-rounded and attacked (for lack of a better word) from all sides: eating healthy, getting physical activity, appropriate sleeping habits, and limiting “screen time.”

I thought about this from my perspective, since I spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen each day.  Luckily, I have a dog that needs lots of exercise, so I make sure to get up and take him for several walks each day.  I know it’s a luxury not everyone has, and I can remember when I worked in an office environment trying to find ways to get up and move throughout the day.  My favorite seemed to be drinking enough water so that I had to get up frequently to follow the call of nature (silly, but true).  I would always try to find a bathroom that was far away so I had to walk more…and I discovered a lot more of the cool bathrooms at our company (I worked for a computer software company that had pretty neat art and decor everywhere).

The other scary thing?  We’re already seeing the effects of a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle in our generation.  I read this article that showcases the daily struggles of people in their 20s and 30s (my age!) living with Type 2 diabetes, and also talks about some of the real dangers of diabetes (blindess, amputation, etc.).  This can serve as a wake-up call to many: https://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/medical/diabetes/story/2011/06/More-young-adults-are-living-with-diabetes/48743776/1.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, real strides are being made.  This article from my neighbor to the south, Chicago, talks about the drop in “food deserts” in the last five years, and the efforts to increase people’s access to fresh fruit and vegetables: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-food-deserts-0624-20110624,0,5396881.story.

Lastly, I wanted to start a fun contest that hopefully will engage some of you.  A friend of mine leaves on Wednesday for Benin, West Africa as part of the Peace Corps.  She will be working on women and children’s health, and in honor of her huge sacrifice and exciting new journey, I gave her a Tri 4 Schools wristband.  I’m proud to say that she put it on right away!  Knowing that our “reach” expands over to Africa is pretty awesome, and I’d like to see where else in the country and world our wristbands go.  If you’re a T4S advocate or friend, let me know where you are and I’ll get you a wristband too.  If you’re already wearing one, comment on our blog and let us know where you’ve been!