September 27, 2006

Cross-country runner seeking to promote better life style for today’s American child

Many of today’s children are out of shape physically. Many are obese, and in danger of becoming diabetic.

Due to a lack of physical activity and poor nutritional habits, that is the growing trend among young children in the United States.

There is one man, who is trying to change that. His name is Paul Staso. He is an outspoken advocate of physical education for today’s young people.

He also is doing more than just talking. He is running across the United States and spreading the word to young people.

As this article is being written and read, Staso is running through Indiana and stopping to discuss his thoughts with school children.

On Thursday, Staso is slated to be in Bluffton, where he will take time out of his running to speak to children in the Operation Wellness program at Lancaster Elementary School (3:45 p.m.) and Bluffton-Harrison Elementary School (4:15 p.m.).

Staso has an internet site called pacerun.com that tells and shows what he is all about.

His plan to run across the United States started with a promise he made to the 4th and 5th grade students at Russell Elementary School in Missoula, Mont.

“That promise was that I would actually attempt to run 3,200 miles across the United States if either class could virtually do it first — during the 2005-2006 school year,” Staso explains on his website.

“My research had shown that an individual elementary class had not yet succeeded at completing a documented coast-to-coast crossing within one 9-month school year. That was the challenge I presented to them ... and they ran with it,” he continued.

“The 5th grade class, consisting of 41 students, successfully completed the journey 6 weeks early (on April 25, 2006) and the 4th grade class of 56 students completed the journey three weeks later (on May 16, 2006).”

According to an article by Karen Cicero in Child Magazine, nutrition and physical education should be one of the top priorities in our country today.

In her studies of children across the United States, the state with the best physical education and nutrition program for children is Connecticut. The worst is Alaska. Indiana ranks just above the halfway mark at No. 23.

For example, Cicero found that just one state requires a physical education class for all students daily.

Only 1 in 4 states specifies a reasonable physical education class size.

Only two thirds of the states teach about nutrition.

The “pace” in Staso’s website stands for “Promoting Active Children Everywhere.”

Staso’s journey is grueling. He is running more than a marathon per day. He averages about 30 miles each 24 hours.

He is hoping that he will help stir up a movement in America that will motivate parents, teachers, school administrators and legislators to pump better living habits into the children of the United States.

sports@news-banner.com

Children and the Need for Physical Activity: Fact Sheet
(A condensed version from pacerun.com)
•Children in the U.S. today are less fit than they were a generation ago and showing early signs of increased cardiovascular disease risk such as weight gain, higher serum cholesterol, and cigarette smoking.

•Inactive children, when compared with active children, weigh more, have higher blood pressure and lower levels of heart-protective high-density lipoproteins.

•Even though heart attack and stroke are rare in children, evidence shows that the process leading to those conditions begins in childhood.

•The 2003 Youth Risk Factor Surveillance Study indicates that 33.4% of youth don’t engage in physical activity that promotes long-term health.

•A fitness testing program sponsored by the Chrysler Fund Amateur Athletic Union, which tracks fitness among 9.7 million youngsters between the ages of 6 and 17, shows that children are getting slower in endurance running and are getting weaker.

•Since 1980 there has been a 10 percent drop off on scores for distance runs and an 11 percent decline in youngsters who achieved at least a “satisfactory” score on the entire test.

•The National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES - 1999-2002) found that the prevalence of overweight American adolescents age 12-19 was 16.7 percent for males and 15.4 percent for females. There was an increase of 250 percent from 1970 to 2002.

•The National Health Examination Survey found that about 16 percent of children and adolescents are overweight. From 1965 to 2002, overweight and obesity increased 276 percent among children 6 to 11 and from 4.2 percent in 1965 to 15.8 percent in 2002.

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