February 21, 2011

Healthy Kids Outreach Program
Expanding health hopes

Mercy Foundation program will soon add services and expand into another district in effort to bring health education to rural classrooms

With rain pouring outside, kindergartners play basketball, kickball and swim inside their classroom at Canyonville Elementary School.

Trina Gwaltney, known to the students as “Nurse Trina,” encourages them to get their hearts racing. “Dribble your ball,” she says, miming bouncing a basketball. “Shoot it, shoot it, shoot it.”

Oregon's rainy winters shouldn't stop anyone from exercising, Gwaltney says. “We have to sometimes get creative,” she says.

Once the students return to their seats, Gwaltney explains why the activity is important.

“When we feel our heart beating faster, that's really good,” she says.

The lesson is part of the Mercy Foundation's Healthy Kids Outreach Program, which brings health education into rural Douglas County classrooms.

Two nurses and a health educator teach students in kindergarten through 12th grade in seven school districts about topics such as hygiene, nutrition and preventing communicable diseases. The nurses also refer students and their families to health services.

Thanks to grants from the philanthropic Oregon Community Foundation, the Healthy Kids Outreach Program, founded in 2006, will soon expand services and reach more students.

A $113,873 grant will allow Healthy Kids to assess the dental health of students and provide dental sealments and fluoride varnishes, said the program's coordinator, Pam Spettel.

The Healthy Kids Outreach Program also will expand into the Glide School District this week with the help of a $10,000 grant from the Oregon Community Foundation's Pete Serafin Fund, Spettel said.

The program already serves the Riddle, Days Creek, South Umpqua, Winston-Dillard, Sutherlin and Oakland school districts.

“Every year we grow just a little bit and serve just a few more kids,” Spettel said.

Glide School District Superintendent Don Schrader said he was thrilled when the Healthy Kids Outreach Program offered to expand into his school district.

“We're looking forward to it. We wanted them to start last week,” he said. “I think it's going to be a great thing. We have a lot of kids that need the attention.”

He said he's excited that Glide middle schoolers will learn about dental hygiene, a topic that hasn't been addressed with those students. “There's a need for a school nurse, but there's no money for it,” Schrader said.

The Healthy Kids Outreach Program is all about helping fill that void, Spettel said.

“Our county schools haven't had school nurses for as long as we can remember,” she said.

Instead of waiting for sick students to come to them, the program's nurses go to classrooms to teach kids about staying healthy, Spettel said.

The lessons are often ones that teachers don't have time to address, Gwaltney said. She spends one day a week in each school district teaching half-hour lessons that encourage students to eat healthier, exercise more and protect themselves from getting sick.

Canyonville Elementary School kindergarten teacher Lynn Rauth has invited Gwaltney into her classroom for the past three years. Rauth said she's seen the lessons influence her students. She said one lesson that stands out is called the Two Bite Club. It encourages students to try healthier foods by taking at least two bites.

This has been especially enlightening for 5-year-olds, who are often picky eaters, Rauth said. When they're part of the Two Bite Club, they try foods such as okra and broccoli, she said.

“The whole program that (Gwaltney has) done is really helping kids try foods that are healthier,” Rauth said. “The kids are finding all these new foods that they are liking.”

It's a lesson that she said she thinks will stick with her students for the rest of their lives.

“I think it's really changed these kids,” Rauth said. “I think it's really building a foundation.”

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