In the last ten years, obesity rates have increased 60%. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the current generation of American children could be the first to live shorter lives than their parents. The Portage Township YMCA developed LAUNCH as a proactive approach to address the recent rise of childhood obesity.
LAUNCH will provide the opportunity for each child in our School Age Child Care program (Y-Care) to eat fresh fruits and vegetables for snack after school at least three days per week, to participate in active play at least one hour each day and to learn about health and nutrition so that they can learn to make positive choices for themselves in the future.
But the program doesn’t stop there – LAUNCH will also offer each family the opportunity to attend educational, interactive workshops and presentations on different aspects of their health and wellness through our partnership with St. Mary Medical Center.
LAUNCH is funded through grant dollars from the United Way of Porter County as well as in-kind donations through our partnerships with St. Mary Medical Center and other organizations in our community.
In the month of April the Y-Care students participated in a jumping jack competition. During Y-Care students would do jumping jacks as long as they could once a week. The winners for the month were:
- Melia Gordon at Aylesworth Site, 10 minutes and 14 seconds
- Christian Mullet at Jones Site, 71 minutes and 19 seconds
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3100 Willowcreek Rd
Portage, IN 46368
Phone: 219-762-9622
Registration for 2012-2013 Y-Care is now open for those parents in need of before and after school care for children in the Portage Township School System. The Portage Township YMCA's Y-Care program has been in the Portage Community for 25 years and still going strong. Y-Care encourages children to be accountable and accepting of one another. Christian life skills and core values such as caring, honesty, respect, responsibility and faith and taught, which will follow children through adulthood.
Following is a comment from Christian's mom to our Y-Care Coordinator.....
"I wanted to commend you on the fitness program you hold for the YCARE students. Its wonderful to see the kids get excited over how long they hula-hooped or how many jumping jacks they did (although quite frankly..it makes me sick knowing secretly that they would have beat me)."
"Additionally, I wanted to thank-you for the "prizes" too. My son, Christian, won the jumping jack "competition" and it was a pleasant surprise when he received his award."
"Thank you for taking the time on that program - it sends a good message and the kids really ENJOY it!"
"Have a nice weekend" - Lindsey Tarkane-Mullet