On the closing day of the event (and after leading a brisk Walk Audit with participants in the AM), keynote speaker Mark Fenton energized and inspired the teams in his engaging presentation entitled "Healthy, Active Schools and Students". Fenton's talk outlined how communities and schools are utilizing Safe Routes to School and related efforts as a catalyst to comprehensive efforts to provide more children more physical activity more of the time and included an overview of the challenges to increasing student physical activity, including walking and bicycling to school. Mark also covered how the five Es (engineering, encouragement, education, enforcement, and evaluation) are central to a successful policy, systems, and environmental approach to increasing physical activity, and illustrate their implementation with real-world examples.
Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester, Ed. D., of the Massachusettes Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, visited the event this morning to welcome the group to Boston and acknowledge NPD and the participants for the valuable work they are doing. He commented on his implementation of the solutions and practices of coming out of the group and how important the concepts of physical activity and nutrition have been to him in his career.
Holly Alperin rings in Day Two of "Strengthening Our Practice: Furthering Our Impact" with a request for participants to share and exchange "a-ha" moments from Day One.
