Press Release
The week of April 30, Castle Heights students held their health week. Health week is designed to teach the students about healthy habits and the students set a goal of walking or running 1,000 miles during the week.
With roughly 500 students at the school, this would equal each student going two miles during the week. Students were given the opportunity to walk or run laps of ¼ mile around the school during their 15 minute lunch recess every day during the week. At the end of the week, students had logged six miles per student, tripling their goal with 3,126 miles logged!
Other activities for health week included 30 minutes of yoga to help keep the students mentally healthy, bike safety instruction from Carbon High mountain bike team members and the Carbon High track team running with the children. USU Extension and Miss Carbon County taught the kids about healthy nutrition and trying new fruits and veggies while seat belt safety was given by the Southeast Utah Health Department. The week also featured walk to school day, where students gathered at the Southeast Healing Arts Center and walked to school together.
“We wanted the students to learn about healthy habits that they can integrate into their lives long term, like walking a little each day, staying mentally healthy, and eating more fruits and vegetables,” said Castle Heights PTA President Beth Nielsen. “We also wanted them to see role models from the community walking with them. People they look up to, like the sheriff, Price City Council members and student athletes from the high school.”
Throughout the week during lunch recess, the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office, Price City Council members, ambulance crews, track and mountain biking athletes, and health department staff came to the school to walk with the students. Nielsen wished to thank the community for its support of Castle Heights students and their involvement in keeping our kids healthy.
Health week comes on the heels of a research report published by Babysense that Utah has the third lowest childhood obesity rates in America, coming in at only 10.3% of children being obese in Utah (www.babysensemonitors.com/blogs/news/happy-families-the-best-states-in-the-us-to-raise-a-family).
