Depew family feels impact of Fun 2B Fit program
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For immediate release: July 25, 2008
Contact: Virginia McAuliffe - (716) 857-6273

Buffalo, NY - After participating in Univera Healthcare's award-winning Fun 2B Fit® program at Cayuga Heights Elementary School, eight-year-old Duncan Allan is living his life in a healthier way. Fun 2B Fit is a healthy lifestyle initiative offered to schools in Western New York and was designed to help kids and their families make healthier food choices and increase their level of physical activity.

Allan, a third grader, participated in the workout portion of Fun 2B Fit at his school last year and received a tool kit filled with healthy items as part of the program. Allan now wears his Fun 2B Fit stopwatch almost everyday and uses his Univera Healthcare backpack to hold his gym clothes.

His mother, Lori Allan stated, "It's challenging to have Duncan realize he can't always have fries, chicken fingers, and pizza. The Fun 2B Fit grocery pad reminds us to purchase whole grains and other healthy staple itemsit makes it easy to remember since they're right at the top of the list."

Cayuga Heights Elementary has participated in Fun 2B Fit for three consecutive school years. Students have participated in the Wegmans Eat Well. Live Well. field trip for fourth graders and the workout for third graders. In total, nearly 700 students have participated in Fun 2B Fit at Cayuga Heights.

More than 100 third graders participated with Allan in a physical activity lesson entitled Why it's Fun 2B Fit. The students, led by a Fun 2B Fit fitness instructor, took part in a 30-minute workout developed especially for kids that incorporates easy, fun dance moves and stretches. During the workout, students were taught the muscles of the body and their function, and discussed the importance of physical activity and activities that can be done at home with family members.

Parents of all students participating in Why it's Fun 2B Fit receive a 'toolkit' which is full of items to help them make healthy choices. Each tool kit contains a magnetic grocery pad for the refrigerator with pre-printed healthy items on each tear-off page, a magnet with everyday tips on how parents can keep their kids healthy, a Healthy Family Pledge to be signed and displayed in the home, and the tool kit itself is a sling-style backpack that can be reused as a gym bag, or to take on family outings.

More than 14,000 WNY students at 55 schools have participated in Fun 2B Fit, which is being offered to WNY schools after a successful pilot program was conducted in 2005.

Fun 2B Fit has been honored with numerous awards including the top national Community Leadership Award from America's Health Insurance Plans, three Excalibur Awards from the Buffalo/Niagara Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, two international MarCom Creative Awards, a Civic Empowerment Award from the Greater Buffalo All-America City committee, an Award of Distinction from the Video Communicator Awards, a World Wide Web Health Award, and a Health Care Advertising Best of Show designation.

Fun 2B Fit program partners include Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., Body Shaping by Sandy, the Healthy Community Alliance and Lifetime Health Medical Group. Wegmans is a 69-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland. Body Shaping By Sandy offers group fitness classes, personal training, weight-loss programs, and corporate fitness in the Western New York area. The Healthy Community Alliance is a non-profit corporation created to facilitate partnerships among citizens, facilities, and community groups to address health and human service needs which are viewed as priority areas in portions of Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Wyoming counties in New York State. Lifetime Health Medical Group is one of the area's largest primary care medical groups, operating five sites and providing primary health care for nearly 100,000 patients in Buffalo and Rochester.

For more information, please visit the Web site at www.fun2bfit.univerahealthcare.com.

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