Students 'Get Healthy' in North Bellmore

When Dinkelmeyer Elementary School Principal Faith Skelos attended the first meeting of the building’s shared decision-making team last fall, parents and staff members in the group offered her plenty of compliments. Skelos explained that she had recently lost 46 pounds, drawing inspiration from instrumental music teacher Desiree Behr, who had dropped 120 pounds.

A casual discussion of the educators’ weight loss soon grew more serious, as the members of the team realized that they would like to encourage children at the school to make healthy lifestyle choices. The group was meeting to come up with a project they could support during the 2013-14 school year that would have a positive effect on the Dinkelmeyer community. From there, the Get Healthy initiative was born.

“We started talking about the fact that, in our society, people need to focus on getting healthier … It’s not easy,” Skelos said. “We discussed how we could kind of inspire the children to want to make these changes.”

Throughout the year, students, parents and staffers at the North Bellmore school took part in a series of programs focusing on nutrition, physical activity and stress management, in addition to implementing changes in their personal habits. They celebrated their efforts at a culminating event on June 13.

The Get Healthy initiative began in January with a kickoff event at the school. Michelle Macolino, a social worker, and Genevieve Pollio, a registered nurse, conducted workshops on stress management. Skelos said they thought it was important that students learn techniques as simple as steadying their breathing to lessen the pressures they already face in their young lives.

“Kids have to learn to manage some of that anxiety,” she said. “Stress becomes an emotional piece and can contribute to the choice to eat poorly or to not do the physical activity you should be doing.”

Phys. ed. teacher Mandy Heigh also conducted a schoolwide physical activity at the kickoff, which incorporated facts and vocabulary about nutrition. During the culminating event, music was integrated into the physical activity.