September 2017                                                                                               Carroll County                      

SUCCESS STORY

The Principal of the Carroll County Summer School Program invited the Carroll County Cooperative Extension Office to participate in their Summer School Program.It was determined that the students needed improvement in several areas. We took the opportunity to provide 6 groups of students from Kindergarten to 5^th Grade, with a total of 114 kids. The important information provided was, how to become a healthier person, how to be a better student, and have a greater performance at school with only a few changes in their lifestyle.

Using the Organwise, Windy Lungs and SNAP-Ed Curriculum we prepared 9 lessons. The lessons included: Glow Germ, Safety and the introduction of all the important organs, their function, and how to keep them healthy. They learned about the importance of eating a healthy breakfast. The benefits of brushing their teeth and drinking milk over processed drinks or soda. How to prepare healthy snacks with some of the things their parents may have in their pantry. They also learned the importance of Staying Away from people that smoke and what a “second hand smoke” means.

At the end of the program we selected 20 out of the 75 program participants to conduct a survey of 4 core questions and the results are as follows:

50% Eat more vegetables

75% Eat more fruits

51% Choose healthy snacks

82% Do more physical activities

Also at the end of the lessons we had all kinds of positive, comments or statements about the program:

1. I made my bed this morning
2. I had breakfast
3. I went to bed early because I wanted to come to your lesson
4. I told my dad not to smoke when I’m around
5. I told my mom to buy skimmed milk
6. I saved my grandpa a little bit of the ratatouille that you made and gave him the recipe and he is going to fix it tomorrow for us and to take to work.
7. You are the best teacher ever “I love you”!
8. Miss Mimi I tried a fruit just for you!

The success story of this program was the overall improvement of all the students eating habits, exercise habits and awareness of healthy eating, and staying away from people who smoke.  The statements above reflect the student's success.