Seven-year-old Mariah Flood carefully studied her options in the candy aisle Thursday morning at Baesler’s Market.
She had selected Inside Out Gummy Bears for about $2 and had another $3 she could spend out of her $10 gift card. “What can I buy for $3?” she asked. After much careful deliberation, the second-grader also bought Pringles and a drink, just slightly exceeding her $5 limit by 45 cents.
She and 80 other summer campers at the Vigo County YMCA are participating in the “STEM and FIT” project. For the next several weeks, the campers will learn about healthful-eating habits and exercise in an effort to reduce childhood obesity. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, and FIT for the Fighting It Together obesity program.
Baesler’s provided each student with a $10 gift card, and students were allowed to spend half Thursday and could purchase whatever they wanted, with a few limits. The candy and snack aisles were especially popular.
The chance is that after students learn more about good nutrition, they purchase healthier items when they return and get to spend the rest of their gift cards.
“I came up with this idea a couple of summers ago,” said Ellen Ramseier, executive branch director of the YMCA of Vigo County. “I wanted to create a program that would certainly benefit our youth in two much-needed areas — math/science and nutrition/fitness. This program is designed to help educate our youth with a fun, hands-on approach on how to incorporate everyday math and science into healthy lifestyles.”
Youth coordinator Jessica Wireman and assistant Courtney Tyra are overseeing the program.
Part of the project involves the Baesler’s shopping trips. With the first trip, most kids will go for the typical unhealthy choices, Ramseier said. Before they return, they will have actually lessons at camp on how to take care of their bodies, what types of food are best for them, what certain foods do to their bodies, what a calorie is, why they need protein and fruits and vegetables.
<z186667>If it’s similar to last year, lots of will choose healthier options on the return trip.
<z186667>Last year, Mariya Krisenko, a graduate of Rose-Hulman, volunteered for the STEM and FIT program and completed statistical data. She found that 37 percent of the campers chose healthier choices on the return trip.
Baesler’s donates the gift cards, which added up to $800 this year. Bob Baesler views the program as a good way to promote health and wellness in the community. “We think it’s a great idea,” he said. And the program appears to have actually a positive impact.
“The first go-round, you’ll see most of them in the candy aisle,” he said. “The second go-round, you’ll see more in the produce area buying fruits and that kind of thing.”
Baesler’s Market is doing its part to promote health and wellness. It removed candy from checkouts as well as soft drink products at the store’s front entrance.
STEM and FIT also helps children learn how to budget, how to shop, how to read a food labels and more.
Other program sponsors are the Pomeroy Wellness Program, Terre Haute Rotary and United Way of the Wabash Valley.
Meanwhile, the camp participants had some tough decisions to make. One girl said proudly, “I’ve only spent 99 cents” as she held up a package of brownies.
Freddy Kuhn, age 8, settled on a 12-oz. carton of Whoppers and a 7-oz. package of Hershey’s candy bars. “I like Hershey’s and I want to try Whoppers,” he said.
Another boy settled on two packages of neon sour gummy worms and a 20 oz. bottle of coca-cola. “I believed they would certainly be good choices, instead of having something that would certainly melt” on the trip back to the Y, he said.
Sue Loughlin can be reached at 812-231-4235 or at sue.loughlin@tribstar.com Follow Sue on Twitter @TribStarSue.
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