P.L.A.Y. makes an impact in the community!

With more and more local schools without the resources to provide children instruction on the benefits of physical activity, and with the average American child devoting 6.5 hours of their day to sedentary forms of media, the Hollywood-Wilshire YMCA has stepped in with P.L.A.Y.

P.L.A.Y. — Physical Learning Activities for Youth — helps fight childhood obesity and ensures that Hollywood’s youngest residents have access to school-based fitness that emphasize the importance of overall well being—physical, emotional, and mental.

NCA Green provided funding for launching this pilot program last Spring at Selma Elementary School. During P.L.A.Y. time, specially trained YMCA coaches teach the elements of safe and effective exercise—while ensuring that students have fun—encouraging positive associations with physical activity. Offering games from street hockey to tennis, Frisbee to juggling, from dancing salsa to running track, children are challenged as individuals and as part of a group, in a non-competitive, age-appropriate, safe, and respectful environment.

The impact of P.L.A.Y. is immediately apparent by comparing testing from the previous year.

In 2008, the average number of laps a child could run was 9.

In Spring of 2009, the average was 25 laps.

That’s an increase of 177%

What a compelling example to make sure we continue programming!

This year, we are working to expand the program at multiple schools in the area. Selma Elementary School and Blessed Sacrament School are the first schools this year to benefit from these collaborative efforts.

Thanks to a recent grant from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Community Foundation, a corporate gift from Paramount Contractors and Developers and several private donors, we were able to kick-off programming in October.

For each sponsorship of $2,500, 25 boys and girls will have access to physical education for the 2009-2010 academic school year—but more importantly, this also means that 25 boys and girls will be given access to the benefits of physical activity including healthy bones, muscles and joints, reduced risk of cancers and overall well being.

Please join the Hollywood Business Community in sponsoring a P.L.A.Y. classroom. For more information about the P.L.A.Y. program, please contact Kitty Gordillo at 213-639-7542 or kittygordillo@ymcala.org.