Helping others get fit

A Scarborough middle-schooler is one of 33 students nationwide selected to help mobilize healthy choices.

Hannah St. Germain, an eighth-grader at Scarborough Middle
School, takes a moment Monday as her fellow students run
through gym class trials behind her. St. Germain was recently
selected as one of 33 student ambassadors nationwide for Fuel
Up to Play 60, an in-school nutrition and physical activity
program created by the National Dairy Council and the NFL.

SCARBOROUGH — Hannah St. Germain, an eighth-grader at Scarborough Middle School, is one of just 33 students nationwide selected to serve as an ambassador for Fuel Up to Play 60, an in-school nutrition and physical activity program.

Created by the National Dairy Council and the NFL in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the program encourages students to eat healthy, and be active at least 60 minutes per day.

As a program ambassador, St. Germain will act as a liaison between health and physical education teachers and students, helping her peers make positive, healthy changes in their schools and communities.

“She’s already taken charge of forming a 10-member school committee and is planning a Wellness Day for the spring,” said Heather Labbe, lead health and physical education teacher at the middle school.

“When I see someone who is overweight, I just want to help them,” said St. Germain on Monday.

A four-sports athlete – she plays field hockey and basketball, runs indoor track, and aspires to a career coaching her favorite activity, lacrosse – St. Germain says she hopes to take her year-long ambassadorship beyond Scarborough to other Maine schools, as well.

“Honestly, the habits we set now will help us down the road,” she said, “because when we’re grown up, if we’re not active and not eating right, we're probably not going to live as long or be as healthy or as happy.”

There’s something to that. According to Healthy Maine Partnerships, the consortium of 28 area health advocacy groups formed in 2001 using money from Maine’s share of the tobacco settlement, 13 percent of Maine high school students are overweight and another15 percent are at risk of becoming overweight. The at-risk numbers jump to 18 percent at the middle school level and 21 percent of kindergarteners.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of adolescents in the U.S. who are overweight has tripled in the last 20 years.

“Our community is pretty active overall,” said Labbe, “but there’s so much technology out there where kids can sit and play, whether it’s on a smart phone or a PlayStation. So, there are lot of sedentary activities.

“My goal is to try and get kids to make lifestyle changes, so that when they are out of school, they make healthier choices,” said Labbe.

That may be a tall order. According to the most recent Maine Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 75 percent of Maine high school students do not eat the recommend five servings of fruit and vegetables per day.

But that’s where the Dairy Council and the NFL hope to make a difference. Fuel Up to Play 60 was founded in 2007 based on national reports claiming that today's youth are at risk of becoming the first American generation with a shorter life expectancy that that of its parents. In addition to the NFL's marketing and physical activity expertise, the National Dairy Council, comprisingf more than 50,000 family farms across the U.S., committed $250 million and staff resources over five years to the project.

Fuel Up to Play 60 has added 3.5 million students to its rolls in the last 12 months, thanks in part to its young ambassadors, and now includes more than 11 million "actively engaged" in the program nationwide in 73,000 enrolled schools.

The aim to get students involved, in part by offering incentives like player visits – Marcus Cannon of the Patriots came to Scarborough this past spring soon after St. Germain was selected for the program, a visit she says was “very cool.”

Other rewards for the target audience (students age 9-13) include official NFL gear, game tickets and even trips to the Super Bowl.

“It’s a great opportunity not only for kids but for parents, too,” said Labbe, noting that parents can log in with their children at the website fueluptoplay60.com to track physical activity and meals.

“There are some really cool things associated with the program,” said Labbe. “From what I’ve seen, the Fuel Up program has a lot of national support out there and money behind it, so they have what it takes to really encourage kids to get involved and, like Hannah, to take the next step.”

Selected from a nationwide search that drew hundreds of applicants, St. Germain and Labbe both got to attend a Fuel Up Student Ambassador Summit in Washington, D.C. this past July.

“That was the adventure of a lifetime,” said St. Germain. “I got to meet all these other student ambassadors, and I still keep in touch with them.”

Labbe said St. Germain came back from D.C. excited to share her summit experiences with the school faculty and has already presented plans for getting her peers to make healthy choices about nutrition and physical fitness.

“The Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassador Summit was such a great experience for Hannah and the rest of the student ambassadors,” Labbe said. “Hannah showed such enthusiasm and great leadership skills at the Summit, and she has brought that enthusiasm back to Scarborough Middle School. She’s eager to get the program going for her fellow students.”