New School Fitness Centers Open - WOWT

New physical fitness facilities were unveiled today at two area elementary schools.

A ribbon cutting at Mount View Elementary near 52nd and Fort kicked off a partnership between Omaha Public Schools, the Omaha Schools Foundation and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Nebraska.

It's part of Project Fit America. The program brings a wide variety of fitness activities to students and is integrated into the school plan.

Through the curriculum and fitness equipment donated, there will be something for every stude, regardless of skill ability.

The idea is to motivate students to want to participate in more activities and move on to higher fitness levels.

“It's one of those high needs for us in developing our wellness plan, which is key for student health which then turns into student achievement,” Mount View Elementary Principal Matthew Williams said. “If students aren't healthy and feeling well, they're not going to do as well innthe classroom so this is a great addition for us to have for what we trying to do in the classroom.”

The outdoor fitness center is available for kids to experience differenet levels of fitness at several stations.

There are exercises that build upper body strength and coordination.

Now that it's built, the question is...will the kids use it?

“We spent some time with the training piece of it so each classroom gets training time on the equipment we even created a training video so when new students come in, they can watch the videos and that's also how we're training the teachers for use so right now they'll be able to come out and they're really excited to use it,” Williams said.

A second fitness center was also dedicated at Chandler View Elementary in South Omaha.