Troy Shorewood Students Participate In Kids' Heart Health

Photo: Troy Shorewood Elementary School students played Ghostbusters tag as one of their physical activities during the school’s Kids’ Heart Challenge program. Here, kindergartners Jaxon Shepley, Axel Go and Abigail Montes, with P.E. teacher Andrew Goron, get ready for the game.

Troy Shorewood Elementary School students spent two weeks in P.E. teacher Andrew Goron’s classes this month learning about what it takes to be healthy through the American Heart Association’s Kids’ Heart Challenge.

The new youth program promotes physical, social and emotional well-being through lessons students are taught about exercise and the heart, playing cardiovascular games and making a difference in the lives of others.

The students were also given three challenges – to try to get 60 minutes of physical activity each day; to replace a glass of soda or juice with water each day; and to do a kind deed for someone else each day.

Through the program, the students also raised money for the AHA and for P.E. and recess equipment for their school.

“The event went really well,” Goron said. “The students really enjoyed it, and we raised over $4,700. It was rewarding to hear them tell me stories about doing a kind deed or getting exercise in after they got home from school.”

Goron said he instituted the challenge into his P.E. program for the solid health education it gave the students and for the daily challenges that involved tips to eat healthy, ways to get physical activity and things they could do to reduce stress.

Troy Shorewood Elementary School is a Troy Community School District 30-C school.