I am the new wellness coordinator HELP ME!

I was going to recommend a 5am formation run to single-out the weak.  But Socks' idea is better.

My guess is that they appointed you because you're an example to others already and they want you to shape everyone up.  Couch to 5K, maybe some group bike rides.  You get t-shirts that the teachers can show-off to the kids.  When people stand-out, there's a sense of camaraderie that builds and peer pressure keeps people going. 

Good luck with it!

Show the kids what they're eating!

• Let them know what goes into "nuggets".
• Show them what 10 pounds of fat looks like.
• Show them some of the chemical preservatives in processed foods.
• Teach them the value of fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Bring in some used cooking oil from a local fast food and show them what they're consuming.
• Teach them how to manage sweets, sookies, ice cream, candy, etc. in moderation.
• Get them to demand healthier food choices from mom and dad.
• Find out if the school cafeteria is serving "meat" containing "pink slime".  One lookl at that stuff and like my kids - they'll never eat any "meat" from the cafeteria ever again!

Exercise and fitness is one thing.  Most kids get some through play and just being a kid (not all).  But these days, their diets are for CRAP!  See if you can help to get at least some of them to consider eating healthier.

I was on the health and wellness committee at my last job.  Remember that you are the exception, and translating what you do down to them will fail.  I had ideas like weekly run/walk, bike rides, etc.  These did NOT work.  Anything too closely resembling hard work WILL turn away the people who NEED a health and wellness committee.

Competitions worked.  Especially when they had a deadline.  Keep things under 3 or 4 months so that people can see the horizon.  Chart progress somewhere publicly -- trash talking helps!  (I mean, friendly competition).  You have to think VERY generic and stuff that EVERYONE can participate in.  Walking, wearing pedometers and recording steps, field day, teacher vs. student softball game???  Sponsor a local 5k that is beginner/walker friendly (I'm assuming you have no budget though, so this may not be an option)

Is this H&W for the staff or for everyone?  That changes things too.

Here's for the fitness side of things (for the most part)

I would stick w/ shorter

distance runs for the kids (1K, maybe 2K for the 4th thru 5th graders)

Focus on events that already exists... Try to have some candies replaced w/ healthier options at the Annual Halloween Carnival.
Provide teachers w/ healthy related ideas for Classroom Holiday parties.
Work w/ local grocery stores and bakeries for Field Day snacks and treats.
Include a run w/ Field Day.

New Options... (if not already happening)
Bike/Walk to school day.  (Encourage those parents who are always complaining about car-line to actually wake the kids up 15 minutes early and WALK/Bike the half mile to school   ).

Bicycle Derby - Lead up to Bike/Walk to school day w/ a bicycle derby at school focusing on bicycle safety, include a bike decorating contest and parade.  Send home safe/preferred routes to school from various areas of the neighborhood.

Host a wellness table at already happening functions (ie the Halloween Carnival)
Host a small wellness fair in conjunction w/ another function (ie the Book Fair)

Contact your local recreation center to find out what activities they are currently registering for.  Invite the rec center to send seasonal staff at recess to play these sports with the kids.  You then can encourage the kids to register as a team representing the school.

Jump Rope-a-Thon (if not already happening)

Check out the Presidential Fitness Challenge and Gold Medal Schools.

MOST IMPORTANT... Get the teachers involved in an adult activity or challenge... Teacher walk talks???  Just like parents set the example at home, teachers do the same at school.

Good Luck...
(feel free to PM me w/ questions.  I work in a rec center and see a lot of different ideas in schools when I visit.)

YESSS to all of this.

DON'T start an email newsletter. It won't get read. Ever.
But DO have a place where employees can go online when they are ready, for more resources.  

Something that works well in my company is incentives. We used to get $50 for participating in the annual health screening. Then it went to $25. Now it's a 1% reduction in health insurance costs. Even if it's something as cheesy as a t-shirt, people line up for those around here. With no budget that might be difficult though.

Can you partner with a local health foundation/agency? They might have some resources like free pedometers you can hand out to staff and then have a competition. 

One organization in my company had a biggest loser contest - the VP put up his own cash as a prize ($500 or something). The response was amazing - one of my friends lost something like 50lbs. 

Last idea is a competition between VPs (or department heads or whatever leadership you have) - maybe for each pound lost (or each mile walked or whatever), you get one raffle ticket to drop in a jar. Whoever has the most tickets in the jar at the end, has to shave their head or get a pie in the face or whatever. Leadership doing silly/embarrassing things is a big motivator sometimes

What a great opportunity for you! 

Everyone so far has listed great ideas, let me add a couple more:  Do you have a local farmers market?  Perhaps they would partner with you and the school to have a special market at the school for have an event for your school at their normal place and time (focus on whole and natural foods)

I really like the broad concept of wellness mentioned earlier.  If you include those don't forget adding some financial topics such as saving and giving along with smart purchasing.  Goal setting, and motivational speakers. 

If you want to go big I have another idea that you could try but would be more focused on the teachers and school district.   Since I can't attach a link very well search youtube for St. Louis County's personal fitness challenge. The data looks good but my guess is the intangable benefits were bigger. ??

voluntold...that's pretty funny.  "hey, you're a triathlete...you should be our wellness coordinator since you're all healthy and all!"

seriously though, that's a pretty big task to put on a person's plate.

it's too bad that school districts don't devote full time jobs to something as important as this.   i know the health and wellness person at the company i work for and it's a pretty busy job if you're going to do it right.  all the great ideas that people have mentioned above require a good bit of time and effort.

best of luck!! 

Lots of great ideas here already - not sure if you mentioned it, but is it for the kids, teachers & staff, or both?  That said, lots of fun ideas that apply to everyone: 

- Kickball tournaments. 
- A field day (assume that they have one since it's elementary, watson).
- Build, plant, and grow a garden. 
- Visit and tour a farm. 
- A class on safe biking. 
- CPR is a great idea, but they may be a little young - might be great for the faculty so that it's a team effort.  
- A project to improve the safety of the school and grounds (like handicap accessibility)
- Improve the playground area (our elementary school and parents BUILT the playground) 
- Anything volunteer related in the community (think special Olympics).

If it's for the K-5 kids, I'd warn is that it's not gonna be ok to run a 'weightloss challenge' of any kind, or even use the concept of weightloss. Not age appropriate. It's got to be fun, accessible, and positive. 

And if it's for the adults, your arsenal gets bigger - you can run much more complex and goal-oriented programs.  

And the wide world of google brings you this. 

WOW, great points Mehaner. 

To the OP, at least you were voluntold to do something fun. 

I was voluntold to be the rep to the Political Action Committee...

I don't think that will actually do anything. You are expecting this, but here in 'Merica, you will get this.

I like the idea of setting goals- the couch-to-5k, followed by a 5k. Using pedometers. Maybe teaching them how to figure out portion sizes - for example, a serving of meat/chicken should be about the size of your palm (works better than measuring it out, since kids need smaller portions overall).

Looking at models of fat is interesting, but remember, even after bringing out that wagon of fat representing what she had lost, Oprah managed to regain a lot of it.

Another idea - around the holidays, have the kids organize food drives with their "extras" - years ago, I was at a school a few days after Halloween, and the school had a "candy drive", where they collected a lot of the kids' extra candy to give to the local food bank. I told my daughter, who did the same thing on her own. It helps to teach them to limit their own access, as well as how to do good in their community.

Since it for kids and staff, maybe set up a kids versus staff competition? Whichever group gets in the most steps, or goes the longest without eating candy (or has the most percentage of people eating 2 servings of fruits and vegetables daily) wins something.

Our wellness organization wants measurable results, so you may want to do some simple measurements like blood pressure, weight, height (to calculate a rough BMI) at both beginning and the end.

One of the local teachers had a "Marathon" club, over the course of the school year they completed 26.1 miles, exercising about 30 minutes a time, some ran, some walked, some did a little of each, but they all finished.  Local running store provided their finish line for the final mile.  gave out simple paper finishers medals, and had a big celebration.  Just took a little time after school.

Our local running store also has races that are focused on school participations, so they get discounts for that race and then special prizes for students, including most participants, combined time for top 5 students, more age groups in lower levels instead of normal 5 yr divisions, it is every 2 from 8 to 14, then 15-19, etc.

The USADA have a ton of nutrition stuff available. I taught a health block at our school for a while and they sent me lots of fliers, CDs, DVDs and brochures that included recipes and info on how to start a community garden. I don't have the link handy, but I think you can contact them from here:

http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/FGP4Children.htm

The community garden idea was awesome. There's not too much that we can grow here in AZ but we actually grew enough to make some salad and salsa. We also took a field trip to a local organic farm and a grocery store.

Our school did an annual 5k. We tied it in with health and wellness but also with math and science (we did 4 weeks of "training" for the event and logged time, distance etc to work out averages, predictions). The 5k is for fun and includes parents and siblings. It turned into a fundraiser.

You may have some local organizations that already have something in place. Around here we have "Girls on the run" that encourages girls to start running and they pair up with a mentor. Might have something similar in your area?

Local fire and PD will come out to talk about safety (here in AZ they are big on water safety). We also had a bike rodeo where they came out and talked about bike safety, and gave away helmets. 

Of course, my school had to ruin it all by having a huge assembly sponsored by McDonalds later in the year, complete with Ronald McD and free coupons for junk food. Sigh!