By Staff
Athletic Management, 18.4, June/July 2006, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1804/wuhealthy.htm
It’s a quiet afternoon in an elementary school in North Dakota, and a third grade class is watching a video. A pineapple sails across the screen into the waiting hands of a North Dakota State University wide receiver, who turns to the camera with a quick message about why he loves to eat his fruits and vegetables. On the wall of the classroom is a poster featuring images of NDSU athletes in uniform, each holding a healthy food. In the students’ books are bookmarks with a similar theme.
The materials are a collaboration between NDSU Athletics and the NDSU Extension Service (an educational outreach arm of the university) intended to help combat childhood obesity. And they supplement a curriculum provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Eat smart. Play hard.” campaign. Each elementary school in the state has received the poster, 100,000 bookmarks have been handed out, and the video is just starting to be distributed. In addition, Bison athletes have made trips to elementary schools to talk with kids about nutrition.
“We’re proud to be helping kids learn about healthy eating, and this project is also furthering one of our strategic goals: to participate in programs with a statewide reach,” says Troy Goergen, Associate Athletic Director for Marketing and Media Relations at NDSU. “Because we are located on the eastern border of the state, it’s difficult for us to make our presence known in the western half of the state. We look at this as an affinity program—kids see the names and faces of Bison athletes in their own classrooms, and it increases the chance they’ll consider enrolling here.”
To fund the project, the athletic department looked to additional collaborations. An advertising agency already on retainer for the department designed the materials for free, and the university’s health insurance carrier, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, agreed to cover production and printing costs.
“Collaboration is really what made this work,” Goergen says. “The athletic department could not have done this alone.”