Special Project Time

          This year, I was privileged enough to take on this summer with another intern in the next office over. Franklin County was fortunate enough to have 3 interns this summer. For the special project, Meagan and I have decided to join hands and take on this task together. Meagan and I will be working collectively to make our visions come true. I feel as if working with someone else will really better the programs that we are going to offer while displaying how important teamwork is. My dates will differ from Meagan’s but we will both be present at all project days.

            For our special project, the theme will be Making Healthy Happen. Meagan and I have done research and on the CEDIK County profile in Frankfort, we collected that there were several issues health related here in Frankfort. The one that really stuck out to us was that 33.1% of the adults are obese. Even though this isn’t directly correlated with children, we felt that education is a great way to break this chain in our area. With that being said, children are at risk for the same health issues that the adults in the community are facing.

 Meagan and I have choose an alternate route, instead of being reactive, we are going to be proactive. Since the internship has started, Meagan and I have been able to attend several different training, such as Project WET, Project Learning Tree and some SNAP classes. Therefore we felt that new information would be very exciting to present. Along with our new curriculum, we have asked Public Health professionals to assist us in reaching out to our young community. Since our audience is elementary school age, we felt that hands on and physical activities would work best.

Meagan and I have divided the task evenly between the two of us, based on our strengths. I was over making an icebreaker for the kids to do. I felt that the icebreaker was important because it would be introducing what we will be doing for the day. On nutrition day or day 1, I have created a game that correlates with MyPlate. Each group will have to place foods on the correct spot on the MyPlate poster, and then we will discuss why MyPlate helps us have healthy balanced meals.  After this activity is complete, we will begin to talk about germs and how easily they can spread. While having this discussion, they will be doing an activity from the Project WET curriculum called GERM BUSTERS. They will also be served a snack that is approved by SNAP. Once their tummies are content with healthy snacks, we will come back together and do another activity that includes calorie counting. We will end this event filled day with another game from the Project WET curriculum called AQUA BODIES. This will also be a gateway activity for our next day.

On day two or physical fitness day, we will have a personal trainer come in a conduct a few games with the kids. First the icebreaker will be the infamous Ships and Sailors game. Meagan and I felt this would be a great way to start our calorie-burning lecture. Along with talking about physical fitness, we will discuss how important water is for the body. During our hydration activity, we will also be having a SNAP approved snack. The activity that we have chosen for hydrations is also out of the Project WET curriculum, called ON TRACK WITH HYDRATION. We have decided to not serve juice on this day but have waters with different types of fruit in them for flavor. After snack and the hydration lesson, we will have our guest do another game with them.

The kids will also have a pre and post assessment to see if they have improved and learned from these lessons. It will also help Meagan and I improve our program as a whole. For our projects we have a very diverse group of kids. They will vary in age, gender, race, and family based incomes. Meagan and I have worked diligently to coordinate a curriculum just for our special project. The date for our special project will start on July 1^st at Good Shepherd Elementary and our last program day will be on July 26^th in Elkhorn Elementary. Good Shepherd will consist of 25 kids whereas Elkhorn will have about 50. With that being said we had to alter some of the games and activities so that everyone will have chance to absorb the same amount of knowledge. We cannot wait to implement these plans and see the effect it will have on our community.