Gilbert Elementary Student Ambassadors Lead the Way to a Healthier San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO (Mar. 6, 2018) – The Mayor’s Fitness Council Student Ambassador team at Gilbert Elementary received a $1,500 award to help launch a healthy service project that will benefit the campus and the health of students.
The service project is supported by a Harlandale Independent School District campus mentor and a community health worker from the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District’s Healthy Neighborhoods program which aims to prevent childhood obesity.
For their service project, the students will lead the school in a “No Soda, Yes Water” education week starting March 5. Ambassadors will announce the benefits of water hydration and limiting soda and sugary drinks over the intercom system daily and will encourage students to participate in an art contest illustrating the benefits of water and the negative impact of sugar on the body. An art work exhibit will be displayed for families to see. During the week, reusable water bottles from the Metropolitan Health District’s ¡Viva Health! campaign will be distributed to students to encourage drinking water and student ambassadors will provide recipes for fruit infused waters.
Mayor’s Fitness Council Student Ambassadors Jackie Guerra, Jacob Hernandez, Joe Vasquez, Ashley Henley, and Alexandra Hernandez along with their campus mentor, Jennifer Montes, and Healthy Neighborhoods’ community health worker Anayanse Garza were selected to represent Gilbert Elementary in June of 2017.
The Gilbert Elementary Student Ambassador team took aim at sugar this year after seeing that many students and families are drinking sodas, sweet teas, sports drinks, and other sugary drinks instead of water. Drinking sugary drinks increase the risk for obesity (unhealthy weight), heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Switching from sugary drinks to water or zero calorie drinks can prevent disease and lead to a better quality of life.
Mayor’s Fitness Council Student Ambassadors across Bexar County are working on a variety of healthy service projects. With program sponsorship from the Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio, the Mayor’s Fitness Council was able to award over $50,000.00 in grant funding to deserving school campuses.
For more information about the Mayor’s Fitness Council Student Ambassador Program, please contact Andrea Bottiglieri at 210-857-5378 or email Andrea.Bottiglieri@sanantonio.gov.