"Part of our success," says Joe Grucza, director of core services at the Dr. George J. D’Angelo Clubhouse, Boys & Girls Club of Erie, "is to get kids involved. Kids who normally don't participate in gym activities do participate here because SPARK does not involve high skill levels. For example, we have a couple of kids — 8 and 9 years old — who weren’t the typical kids who’d go to the gym. We had to coax them. 'Come on,' we said, 'try this. It’s new.' With SPARK, they became regulars."
SPARK Active Recreation, a Highmark Healthy High 5 program, helps kids of all skill levels discover what's inherent in all of them, their built-in energy and their innate enjoyment of fun and fitness.
A nationally recognized physical activity program, SPARK is designed for children ages 5–14, promoting moderate to vigorous activities for up to one hour daily and establishing lifelong healthy behaviors.
At the Boys & Girls Club of Erie, adult leaders follow the SPARK curriculum, focusing on fitness. "In general, we see kids getting away from fitness activities," Grucza says. So, three times a week, he has his 30-some 7- to 13-year-olds spend an hour or so running around the parachute, playing crazy cones and generally enjoying other games built around fitness.
At the Boys & Girls Club of Erie, everyone succeeds in the SPARK Active Recreation program. SPARK is used at more than 140 sites across Pennsylvania.
"It's a big success to get kids to come on a regular basis," he says. "Not to warehouse them, but to get them engaged and really help them to develop their confidence. SPARK is something that these kids can access."
"SPARK has even been able to open other inroads for us," Grucza adds.
The club, for example, has a vending machine full of the usual high-calorie snacks. But the kids don't use it much anymore.
"Because of SPARK," he says, "and a good hot meal available in the evening, they don't access it much. They've made a lifestyle change."
Learn how to encourage kids to exercise daily for good health by reading our Physical Activity pages.
Learn more about the SPARK program in Pennsylvania.
This story was originally published in an April 5, 2009, advertising supplement for Highmark Healthy High 5.