Highlighting Healthy Habits For Kids

Robert E. McNair Elementary School was the place to be as Nike’s NFL PLAYERS Live! In The Community project took over the school, showing their 850 students the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and outdoor education. The health and wellness event was intended to strengthen the students’ understanding of the importance of exercising and spending time outside.

A group of current and former NFL players traveled to the school along with some NFL Players Association officials for the day-long program. The Dallas, Texas school’s principal, Virginia Lockwood-Terry, said of the program that it would be “a day the children will remember for the rest of their lives.

The day was kicked off with a performance from the local David W. Carter High Schools’s drumline. Shaun Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs took the kids on an exploration of new greenery installed by partner REAL School Gardens while Seattle Seahawks receiver Isaiah Stanback ran a science station showing students how combining carbon and nitrogen forms a compost that helps enrich soil.

Detroit Lions offensive tackle Jason Fox led a demonstration in healthy cooking, something all children should be taught at an early age. NFLPA Public Policy Counsel Joe Briggs led the 4th-graders in a role-playing game that re-enacted photosynthesis; half the students were leaves, water, and sunlight, and the rest along with Briggs acted as chloroplasts.

Former NFL cornerback Scott Turner was a keynote speaker for the NFL PLAYERS Live! In The Community project which is part of a bigger initiative called Let’s Move Outside.  The NFL has always stressed the need for an hour of exercise or playing outdoors each day through their Play60 movement. This new project is further stressing that need.

The NFLPA recognizes that as athletes they are in a unique position to better the world. The are constantly working on giving back to the community and this is just another example of that. This event at the Ronald E. McNair Elementary School marks the end of the Live! In The Community project, but it most certainly won’t be the last philanthropic initiative from the NFLPA.