Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Mario Lopez Announce the 2nd Annual Triple Play Fit Family Challenge Winner

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A healthy dose of competition helped the Porter family, members of the Boys & Girls Club of Portage County, Stevens Point, WI, win the second annual Triple Play Fit Family Challenge. This year's Challenge helped five families from across the country incorporate principles of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America's (BGCA) Triple Play program into their lives over a period of six weeks. Mario Lopez, BGCA alum and host of the nationally syndicated daily show EXTRA, crowned the Porter family as the winners based on their ability to increase their physical activity, make healthier nutrition choices and spend more quality time together.  

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"The commitment from these families is inspiring. By staying motivated and providing encouragement to one another, each of the families looked at the Triple Play Fit Family Challenge as a way to come together and work toward living a healthier lifestyle every day," said Lopez.

The winners were announced at the Triple Play Fit Family Challenge finale event at Pan Pacific Park in Los Angeles, California. The event celebrated the Challenge finalists and put them to one last test as each family completed a race of exercise, games and healthy eating. The Porter's emerged as the winners of the competition because they made the biggest changes to their lifestyle including increasing their physical activity and spending meaningful time as a family. They were awarded a healthy family vacation to Colorado Springs to visit the U.S. Olympic Training Facility in 2012. The other four families also received prizes, including Microsoft's Xbox Kinect system.

The Triple Play program, called "A Game Plan for the MIND, BODY and SOUL," is supported by founding sponsor The Coca-Cola Company and the WellPoint Foundation to encourage kids to eat a balanced diet, become more physically active and increase their ability to engage in healthy relationships. During the Challenge, the five families learned and practiced healthy eating habits (MIND), were physically active (BODY) and spent quality time with each other (SOUL). Challenge activities included earning the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA) from the President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition (PC); trying new fruits and vegetables and eating smaller portions; and, participating in a family fitness night at their local Boys & Girls Club.

"We are extremely proud of the efforts that the families put into the Triple Play Fit Family Challenge," said Wayne B. Moss, BGCA's senior director of Sports, Fitness and Recreation. "Boys & Girls Clubs of America believes living a healthy lifestyle is critical to the overall well being of today's youth – ensuring a pathway to a great future."

In addition to Mario Lopez who served as the BODY coach and overall spokesperson for the challenge, the families were coached by well-known health advocates Dr. Val Jones, CEO of Better Health, LLC, a medical blogger network and education company, who served as the MIND coach, and Donna Richardson Joyner, fitness expert with experience helping faith centers and communities live healthier lifestyles, and member of the before-mentioned President's Council, as the SOUL coach.

"These families have started a legacy of good health that will go beyond this Challenge and hopefully, become a permanent part of their everyday lives," said Erika Von Heiland Strader, Director of Community Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company. "It is this commitment to living positively that makes us proud to support Triple Play – a program that has equipped these and thousands of other families with the tools to lead active, healthy lifestyles for years to come."

"The five families that took part in this competition are truly an inspiration," said Lance Chrisman, executive director, WellPoint Foundation. "By combining healthy activities and good nutrition with family time, they demonstrated that being healthy can not only be fun, but can also produce great memories that last a lifetime. The WellPoint Foundation is proud to support the Boys & Girls Clubs of America because they share our commitment to improving health and strengthening our local communities."

BGCA offers all families a resource (in both English and Spanish) to help them get healthy together – the Triple Play Parents Game Plan. This at-home guide is available as a free download at www.bgca.org/tripleplay.

About Triple Play

Triple Play: A Game Plan for the Mind, Body and Soul was launched in 2005 by Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services with support from The Coca-Cola Company to encourage kids to eat a balanced diet, become more physically active and increase their ability to engage in healthy relationships. A two-year study of more than 2,000 children ages 9-14 showed that Triple Play succeeded in getting them to exercise more, eat healthier foods and feel better about themselves. The study found that Triple Play kids increased to 90 percent of the federally recommended amount of daily exercise, which is 60 minutes a day for children, while their peers outside the program decreased to 78 percent. To date, Triple Play has helped more than one million kids learn the importance of physical activity and proper nutrition. In 2011, the WellPoint Foundation joined BGCA and Coca-Cola as a Triple Play sponsor. Learn more about the program at www.bgca.org/tripleplay.

About Boys & Girls Clubs of America

For more than 100 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (GreatFutures.org) has enabled young people most in need to achieve great futures as productive, caring, responsible citizens.  Today, nearly 4,000 Clubs serve some 4 million young people through Club membership and community outreach.  Clubs are located in cities, towns, public housing and on Native American lands throughout the country and on U.S. military installations worldwide. They provide a safe place, caring adult mentors, fun and friendship, and high-impact youth development programs on a daily basis during critical non-school hours.  Club programs promote academic success, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles. In a Harris Survey of alumni, 57 percent said the Club saved their lives. National headquarters are located in Atlanta. Learn more at http://bgca.org/facebook   and http://bgca.org/twitter.

SOURCE Boys & Girls Clubs of America