Local Residents Win Fitness Award
Allycen Herrman already has her topic for her “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay. Allycen earned a Presidential Active Lifestyle Award this summer by swimming, taking walks, and jumping to 1000 with a jump rope. Allycen was not the only member of her family to be an award winner. Her mother Kim earned an award as well walking with Allycen and taking classes at the Y.
“The Presidential Active Lifestyle Award motivates you to get active and fit,” said Anne Lewis award coordinator at the South Dakota Discovery Center. “Kids earn Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards by being active 60 minutes a day, five days a week for six weeks out of eight. The minimum for adults is 30 minutes a day but it’s easy to do more.”
Judy Rieger is an adult who has done more, a lot more. Rieger regularly walks an hour to an hour and a half a day on a treadmill, logging more than 138 hours of walking since she signed up for the President’s Challenge in late April. Rieger, a self-described senior citizen, walks to help manage her diabetes. “Walking helps keep my diabetes under control,” she said. “But I’ve always been a walker. I just feel better when I walk.”
The next achievement for this group of award winners is to participate in the President’s Challenge earning medals for points earned for exercise. Allycen hopes to be a gold medal winner by next summer just in time for the 2012 summer Olympics.
Finding ways to add activity to your life is not that difficult said Lewis, “You can log housework, gardening, walking. Even sandbagging could have been logged as lifting and hauling.”
Lewis said that the most challenging part of earning the award is remember to enter the workouts on the President’s Challenge website. Kim Herrman said writing down the workouts and entering them twice a week was her secret to staying current. Judy Rieger entered hers more frequently.
The award is administered by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition and is part of a national initiative to address America’s increasing rates of obesity. The South Dakota Discovery Center is sponsoring the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award locally as an outreach of the Body Carnival exhibit they are hosting this summer.
Lewis said exhibit co-sponsors Coordinated School Health, St. Mary’s Foundation and Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth were looking for a fun way to promote family fitness. “The Discovery Center will continue sponsoring the awards as part of our Let’s Move traveling exhibit for as long as we can. We would love to see more kids, families, singles and seniors earn their awards.”
You can sign up for either the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award or the President’s Challenge online through the SD Discovery Center’s website. Lewis said that in order to receive the awards, you have to join the Let’s Move SD Discovery Center group.
Award winners: Anne Lewis, Allycen Herrman, Kim Herrman, Judy Rieger
Award winner Thomas Kropp
