New fitness program in Clay County designed to get kids moving

Every fourth- and fifth-grader in the Clay County schools will receive a pedometer as part of a new fitness program designed to combat childhood obesity.

"The goal is to motivate students to be more physically active in a county where one research project found that 47 percent of children were overweight or obese," the Lexington Herald-Leader's Bill Estep reports.

The program integrates physical activity in lesson planning in subjects like math and geography. "It does that through challenges to walk enough steps to get to Houston, for instance, with lessons about the geography or history of places along the route," Estep reports. "We want to see some changes," said Deann Allen, instructional supervisor for the school system.

The program is a venture between the system, Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville and Manchester Memorial Hospital. Kosair is paying for the pedometers, expected to cost about $15,000. A similar program was started in Louisville last year. (Read more)