WCS Employees Take Wellness Challenge

Published October 29, 2009

Beginning October 30, more than 1,300 Williamson County Schools employees will begin a voluntary 90 day staff wellness challenge. This challenge, promoted by Coordinated School Health, allows employees to earn points for their team by tracking progress in the areas of nutrition, strength training and activity.

Ken Brooks, the school system’s health and wellness specialist, is excited about the challenge. “So much of the time the nature of educators and staff is to meet the needs of others," said Brooks. "This is a chance for them to have a little more focus on taking care of themselves in a competitive and fun manner."

According to Brooks, research shows there is a definite association between good health and higher academics. If healthy students learn better and healthy teachers teach better, then good health is a great asset for the school environment.

The wellness challenge combines the positive aspects of social networking with wellness. Each participant establishes a profile and will log on to a special website to record their healthy activities for his or her team.

“What I really like is the easy format that has been set up to record healthy habits and the focus of this challenge," says Brooks. "Even though many people associate any wellness challenge with losing weight, this challenge is about earning points for your team by completing healthy habits. Ninety days is plenty of time to see positive changes in a variety of areas, even those beyond weight reduction.”

Points will be tabulated daily and although all individual information is private, each person will be able to see how many total points each team has and where his or her team sits in the standings. In the end, winners will be announced and prizes awarded.

The response in itself shows the excitement that has been building since the idea of a challenge was introduced to principals on September 23. Since that time, teams have been creating team names, colors, logos and slogans. Teams like Fitness Fiends, Mission Slimpossible, Saber Shape-Ups, Tea-Mates, Winstead Wellcats and 52 others are geared up and ready to go.

If interested in more information about the details of the challenge go to the following WEBSITE.