What's a healthy food? Concerned 4 Your Health Youth Wellness Program leaders Jason Thompson (left) and Byron Folk explore sound nutritional choices with participants.
Ivonne Lambie, LGH healthy weight management coordinator, offers a mind-bending demonstration of how much fat is in various foods.
Seventeen-year-old twins Shaniece (left) and Shanae Cole hope to show program participants that dance can help burn calories.
You might want to give that cheeseburger a second look.
At the ongoing Concerned 4 Your Health Youth Wellness Program, at Bright Side Opportunities Center, young people get a fresh perspective on healthy lifestyles.
The six-month-old program, which meets three Saturday mornings a month at the center, 515 Hershey Ave., Lancaster, is part of Lancaster General's Healthy Weight Management Initiative, in partnership with Concerned Black Men and Bright Side.
It's not about lectures, deciphering fat grams or doing mindless laps.
About 20 kids, ages 8 to 15, learn how to make healthy choices by incorporating dance, games, swimming at the YMCA, animated discussions, a unique jingle and mind-bending demonstrations.
On a recent Saturday, LG healthy weight management coordinator Ivonne Lambie brings a curious display of test tubes. Each is filled with a fat-like substance, representing the amount of fat in a certain food.
The test tube illustrating fat in a cheeseburger is filled to the top.
For kids inundated with fast-food ads through the media, the display is eye-opening.
"Whoa, don't tell me that's a cheeseburger," says one young participant. "Dawg!"
"The idea of the program is to promote nutritional information that is sound, helpful ... practical and helps kids learn how the media impacts the choices they make," Lambie says.
And there's an added benefit.
"I like to make new friends," says 13-year-old Edgar Villanueva. "That's what's most important."
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Concerned Black Men president Jason Thompson and vice president Byron Folk are the driving forces behind the program, which is free for participants.
However, a program director is being sought, Thompson says.
Concerned Black Men is a national initiative that originated in Philadelphia in 1975. The Lancaster chapter started in 2005.
"Our purpose is to be healthy mentors and role models to young boys and girls, who will become young men and women," Thompson says.
Concerned Black Men also sponsors scholarships and a chess program and is planning to launch a youth abstinence program, Thompson says.
Each Saturday's 2½-hour wellness program concentrates on both exercise and nutrition education.
Exercise highlights include sessions guided by Cindy Felder, fitness instructor at Bright Side, and movement to music, led by 17-year-old twins Shanae and Shaniece Cole.
During the program, participants' body mass index (BMI) is measured, and pedometers are also provided.
"Kids have a great time," Thompson says. "The idea is to make it fun."
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Lined up in front of a dry-erase board at Bright Side, program participants get ready to sound off for fitness.
Like soldiers in the war against obesity, they stand at attention, repeating the words of the jingle written on the board, a jingle the kids have made uniquely their own.
Their voices echo in unison loudly throughout the room, like a mantra for change:
Fitness is fun, and you can do it, too ...
Why not come join us, and you can get fit, too
Stop sitting on the couch
Get up and exercise ...
Several kids have individual lines, and the jingle ends with a resounding cheer.
Perhaps that cheer reflects the spunky spirit of the participants, who readily raise their hands during educational presentations.
Solenid Rivera, 12, gives the program high marks for its activity diversity, especially the dance routines.
That's good news for the Cole twins, who say they want to show the students that dancing is a good way to burn calories.
Participant Joslyn Yates, 12, appreciates how the program teaches kids about fast food and advertising, and its effects on overeating. Jhavon Jenkins, 11, says he believes the program will help him get in shape.
And parents like the program, too.
"I think it's an awesome program," Stephanie Thomas says. "My daughter had an issue with her weight, and this is giving her tools to build her self-confidence, and also to teach her healthy portions. It's not just about what she eats but about how much."
Bottom line:
Hold the cheeseburger.
YOUTH WELLNESS