BLUE ZONES PROJECT OSKALOOSA ANNOUNCES OSKALOOSA ELEMENTARY A BLUE ZONES SCHOOL

Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner address attendees to the Oskaloosa Blue Zone kick-off event.

Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner address attendees to the Oskaloosa Blue Zone kick-off event. (file photo)

Oskaloosa, Iowa — January 13, 2015 — Blue Zones Project® Oskaloosa today announced Oskaloosa Elementary School (OES) as a designated Blue Zones School®. To celebrate, the school will be holding a blue ribbon cutting ceremony and assembly on Friday, Jan. 16, at 1:30 p.m. at 1801 Orchard Ave.

Designation as a Blue Zones School is achieved by optimizing nutrition programs, changing the building environment, and creating health and well-being improvement programming. All the actions are designed for a long-term, positive impact on the health and well-being of students and staff.

“OES is thrilled to be designated as a Blue Zones School,” said Mike Dursky, principal of Oskaloosa Elementary School. “We have been providing students with more selection and variety of healthy fruits and vegetables, and the students are actively choosing to select items from the new garden bar in the cafeteria. My favorite experience thus far in the Project was participating in the walking school bus. All the parental and community support was great to witness, especially watching the students enjoying the conversation that transpired as much as the walking component itself.”

“This has been a great experience seeing our students becoming more and more aware of a healthy lifestyle and what that involves,” said Briana Bartlett, art teacher at Oskaloosa Elementary School and president of Fine Arts & Cultural Events of Mahaska County. “As a teacher on lunch duty, I get to see the kids trying out new foods and deciding what they think of them. It was also fun to see students getting their exercise and enjoying the cool fall weather during the walking school bus. I had the pleasure of walking along and visiting with students one of those crisp mornings. I love seeing our town get involved with this initiative. I’m personally excited about it becoming more walkable and bike friendly.”

Oskaloosa Elementary School undertook and completed policy and program improvements as outlined on www.bluezonesproject.com. Examples of specific actions include: offering recess before lunch, updating cafeteria equipment to support provision of healthier foods, implementing a walking school bus program, and integrating physical activity and nutrition education into daily lesson plans. Oskaloosa Elementary School also established a health-and-wellness council comprised of teachers, parents, a school nurse, and a local dietician who meets regularly at the school.

“It has been so exciting to be a part of the passion that the School Policy Committee brought to the table, partnered with the vision that Mr. Reiter and Mr. Dursky have for wanting our youth to understand the importance of their well-being,” said Natalie Spray, community program manager for Blue Zones Project Oskaloosa. “The energy that so many of the OES staff members have paired with the creativity they implement into their daily lesson plans not only makes me a proud citizen of Oskaloosa but also a very thankful parent of a student at this school.”

Brought to Iowa through an innovative sponsorship by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, in collaboration with Healthways and Blue Zones, Blue Zones Project is a community-by-community well-being improvement initiative designed to make healthy choices easier through permanent changes to environment, policy and social networks.

For more information about how to become a Blue Zones School, contact the Blue Zones Project team at 712-224-6042641-670-7777 or visit www.bluezonesproject.com.

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