Pilot Health Initiative Rolls Out In Two Loudoun Schools

Inova Health System is partnering with local schools to promote healthier lifestyles among students and their parents.

Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick Monday night joined Knox Singleton, CEO and president of Inova Health Systems, former NFL wide receiver Cliff Russell, Fairfax County Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Kim Paddson Dockery, and dozens of students from Loudoun and Fairfax's public schools at a special reception at Inova Fairfax hospital to kick off the iPath program.

Short for Inova Partnering Actively Towards Health, iPath will start as a 10-week program in Heritage High School and Simpson Middle School in Loudoun County and Whitman Middle School and Mount Vernon High School in Fairfax County. Students will engage in a variety of health-oriented educational activities, including nutrition discussions at popular restaurants, community projects, and awareness programs such as the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's empowerme4life healthy living course and Northern Virginia's Healthy Kids Coalition 9-2-5-1-0, which promotes children getting nine hours of sleep every day; eating five servings of fruit; limiting TV and computer time to two hours a day; getting one hour of exercise per day; and consuming no sugary drinks.

During the program students will partner with Russell, among other famous athletes from the WNBA, NHL and MLS, who will assist the students in developing fitness and nutrition plans that will help them "reach their full potential." Russell owns and operates Russell Fitness, Sports and Wellness and in Ashburn, and takes a personalized approach to help educate and train clients of the facility.

"Our goal is to create a life changing experience by getting folks back on track," said Russell during the reception. "We only get one body, so we have to respect our bodies. We can't continue to think its OK to consistently put junk inside our bodies."

One of the main hopes for the program, once it is completed, is that the students involved will take the knowledge they have learned back into their schools, homes and communities to help promote healthy living practices among others.

Rod Williams, vice president of community affairs for Inova, said the students would act as "ambassadors" to their families, classmates and friends, helping to communicate what they have learned about the importance of leading an active life and eating healthily to a much larger audience.

Hatrick likened the idea of using children to help spread such knowledge to their families at home to others examples he witnessed during his time spent as both a student and educator in Loudoun's school system.

Hatrick recalled the time when rotary phones were updated to touch tone phones, and the introduction of direct dialing that replaced the need to have an operator connect long distance calls. During that time, he said, programs were held in schools to educate children on how the new system worked, with the children going on to explain the new technology to their families. Other similarities include the promotion of seat belt safety in the classroom and the increasing awareness of the dangers of tobacco smoke.

Hatrick said that by realizing early on the benefits of healthy living in both the present and future, the students "will have allowed all of us to add some years to our lives."