| The year was 1989 and a national survey of 12,000 students covering their fitness levels from 1980 to 1989 was released jointly by the Amateur Athletic Union and the Chrysler Fund. The conclusions were shocking to say the least. The survey found the percentage of children who received a “satisfactory” score on the fitness test dropped from 43 to 32 and the average weight increased for both the boys (5 pounds) and girls (7 pounds). In addition, physical education classes were being dropped from schools across the country for budgetary reasons. Something had to be done!
As a former PhysEd major and a current physical therapist I was infuriated by the report and decided to take action. I created a 10-minute fun fitness routine that children could perform in their street clothes standing directly beside their desks that I called “Time Out for Fitness.” No more excuses! It didn’t take time away from reading, writing, and arithmetic. It didn’t cost the schools a dime. Every child could do the routine. And there was no competition involved.
And it worked!
I initially launched the program with the help of the Philadelphia Archdiocese and 151 of their Catholic grade schools. After a year of overwhelming positive results and teacher endorsements, the program went national. My goal was to target the 25 million children in 75,000 grade schools and day care centers throughout the country.
I committed to an 11-city promotional tour from coast-to-coast and recruited Disney to incorporate Goofy as our fitness Ambassador and star in the classroom posters, newsletters, and animated training videos. As part of its sponsorship of the 1992 Olympics, Minute Maid agreed to underwrite the entire cost of the classroom program. My Pledge of Allegiance to the body was causing people to stand up and take notice. At one point I heard Time Out for Fitness was activated in almost 10,000 schools!
Ideally, I dreamed of every child in America standing up at 10:00am every morning and performing 10 minutes of simple calisthenics. I still do.
-- PC
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