The St. Cloud Rox Project S.A.V.E. (Sports, Arts, Volunteerism and Education) Foundation has expanded its partnership with St. Cloud Area School District 742 this year to a newly piloted fitness program. The three-week program was the idea of Jim Loria, the corporate and community partnership director at the St. Cloud Rox Baseball Club.
“We sat down with the board [of Project S.A.V.E.] and started talking about the fitness program and everyone was in favor of it,” says Loria. “A person that I’ve mentored who lives in a foreign country talked to me about how her country does a fitness program, so she put me in contact [with others], and it sparked the whole thing.”
Due to the success of the Rox Project S.A.V.E. Reading Program, Loria contacted District 742.
Jill Lipp, academic coach at Apollo High School and Rox Fitness Program Lead, says, “We, of course, jumped on the opportunity because of the incentives for the kids, and we know how important fitness is for our kids.”
The program in its pilot year focused on grades three through five districtwide. Students were given an introductory Rox video and a sheet with a variety of physical activities. Some of the activities included cleaning their room, doing yard work, building a snowman, dancing and yoga. Students were asked to do 30 minutes of activities each day outside of school. Parents would then sign-off on the activity to qualify students for a chance at incentive prizes.
There was community buy-in as well. The Skatin’ Place, AirMaxx Trampoline Park and Warrior Course, Granite City Jump and YMCA all contributed. Between area businesses and the Rox S.A.V.E. Foundation, $70,000 worth of incentives and prizes ranging from Rox tickets to bikes, passes and gift cards were given to students and schools who completed the activities.
“The foundation is really doing the work and contributing now,” shares Loria. “Since this was the fitness program, we asked what could we do that relates back to fitness in a monetary way to get the schools to stay the course and get involved. So, we came up with a plan to award one school a $2,000 grant that they can use for their playground … and one school a $1,000 grant to use towards their gymnasium.”
The district’s goal is to teach kids to have lifelong fitness goals. With the help and partnership of Rox Project S.A.V.E., the plan is to expand the program into grades six through eight in the coming year.
“I think the program is GREAT! I’m in full support of getting kids more active,” says Jennifer Rocheleau Dorholt, parent of a third and fifth grade student at Madison Elementary School. “I can say, my kids did engage in activities they otherwise wouldn’t have without the fitness program. They cleaned their rooms. Wahoo! And [they] did some general running, walking, aerobic activity on days off from other activities so they could log time each day.”
Another added benefit, according to Loria, is that families are doing these activities together. They are sledding, skiing, playing in the snow and having a great time doing it.
Kids are the healthy winners with St. Cloud Rox Project S.A.V.E.!
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