Kent takes healthy message to the streets with passport program

There’s a whole new reason for kids to “kruze” around the city this summer thanks to Kent4Health’s Kruzin’ Kent Passport Program.

Armed with a free passport, elementary school students can check out dozens of businesses around the city, collecting stamps for their passport and learning about ways to stay healthy and earning prizes along the way.

“It challenges them to eat healthier, collect some information and participate in activities,” said Marge Williams, one of the volunteers helping to lead the program.

Based on last summer’s Cruzin’ Covington program that involved eight schools, this year’s program expanded the passport to all of Kent’s elementary schools for a total of 16,000 kids receiving passports.

“They had a great response,” Williams said of Covington’s program. “It was worth expanding.”

Williams said the idea for expanding the program to Kent grew out of Mayor Suzette Cooke’s initiative for a healthier community and said they decided to try to give children something to do this summer that would get them moving and teach them about a healthier lifestyle.

“We needed to focus on the kids,” Williams said. “We want the whole family to be engaged, but the passport itself is targeted to (grades) K-6.”

The program is broken into three categories, each with participating businesses that provide stamps on the students’ passports.

At summer’s end, the school with the most stamps collected by its students will win $1,000 worth of playground equipment, donated by Univar, one of the program’s sponsors.

There are also individual prizes available for students who collect the most stamps on their own.

Other major sponsors of the program are Multicare and Valley Medical Center.

The three categories for the program are Eat Smart, Play Hard, and Learn.

At the “Learn” sites, students can gather information on a healthier lifestyle. At the library, for example, there are books about making healthy choices while a location like Apple Physical Therapy is offering a handout about the dangers of carrying overloaded backpacks.

As for activity, the passport makes suggestions, but students can tell officials at the sites what they’ve done this summer, be it riding bikes or swimming or playing baseball or whatever to receive stamps.

“They can bring their passport to any official site anytime they’ve done something,” Williams said. “It’s not limited to the places on the Play Hard sites.”

Kent4Health city liaison Pam Clark said the program is funded through grants and has been a great transition from Covington.

“We just wanted kids to be active and learn something and choose healthier habits,” Clark said.

Williams, who works at the Kent Chamber of Commerce said she “sees a lot of kids” come into the chamber’s offices to get their passport stamps and businesses around the city have been very supportive of the program.

“We didn’t get a no,” Williams said about business participation.

Clark said the program is a way for residents to discover new businesses that are participating in the passport program, recounting a story of one woman who brought her kids into city hall for a stamp.

“She got downtown and saw businesses she didn’t know were there,” Clark said. “So it’s a win-win for everybody.”

Andrea Hartman, who was out recently with her two children and one of their friends, said the passport program presented her with ideas for “mini field trips” this summer, adding that she and the kids had been all over the city collecting stamps.

The kids have also learned some valuable lessons, Hartman said, especially from a dentist who taught the kids about the amount of sugar in sodas.

“It’s been a little eye-opening along the way as well,” she said, adding that the program helps instill healthy eating habits in the kids.

Williams said the volunteer group working with the program is very passionate about helping children. So far, she said, the program has been quite successful this year and she hopes it will be expanded again next summer.

“I think it’s bound to get bigger,” she said.

The program runs through Sept. 19.

For more information about the Kruzin’ Kent Passport program visit www.kent4health.com.