Youth Take Action at Boys & Girls Clubs of America's Triple Play Leadership Summit Town Hall in Colorado Springs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Sept. 6, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With new reports showing childhood obesity still high nationwide, more than 125 young people from Boys & Girls Clubs around the nation will convene in Colorado Springs September 6 – 8, 2013 as Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BCGA) hosts its Triple Play Leadership Summit at the Olympic Training Center.  Club staff will learn from experts and return home with leading practices and tools to use in their own communities.

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According to a recent report from Trust for America's Health, obesity rates for children continue to track at all-time highs, a major issue for communities throughout the country.  To address this, Boys & Girls Clubs of America's Triple Play program is working to combat this issue, one kid and one connection at a time. BCGA encourages its members to think of personal wellness as a three-legged stool comprised of mind, body and soul. Through Triple Play, the non-profit's comprehensive health and wellness program, Club members are taught that they must balance all three equally to be their best. 

Made possible by The Coca-Cola Company and the WellPoint Foundation, Triple Play has made more than 7.2 million connections with kids since 2005. The goal of the Triple Play program is to encourage kids to eat healthier, become more physically active and increase their ability to engage in healthy relationships.

"Boys & Girls Clubs of America organized this Summit in Colorado, statistically a state with one of the fittest populations in the country, to encourage and empower attendees to address the issues of increasing health and fitness and reducing obesity in their own communities," said Wayne B. Moss, Boys & Girls Clubs of America's senior director of healthy lifestyles. "We believe that through knowledge and commitment, our Club members will have an ongoing positive impact at their Clubs and at home."

Summit Highlights

• Friday, Sept. 6, 7-8:30 p.m. – BGCA has organized a Town Hall meeting, bringing together more than 125 Boys & Girls Club youth, Club staff and experts from around the country to create an engaging and interactive conversation around the issue of obesity.  A panel discussion and interactive discussion will teach attendees how to empower individuals and communities to make healthier Club, neighborhood, school and home environments.  

Speakers include:

• Kid Chef Eliana de Las Casas, a 13-year-old phenom chef with two published cookbooks and another releasing in the spring
• Mataio Swain, a member of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation's Youth Advisory Board.  Fourteen year-old from Charleston, WV
• Erika Von Heiland Strader, director, community marketing, Coca-Cola North America and member of the 1992 and 1996 US Olympic Badminton team

• Sunday, Sept. 8, 9-10 a.m. - The Journey for Health bike tour, sponsored in part by BCGA and the WellPoint Foundation, will stop by the Summit for an inspirational talk and presentation.  The Journey for Health Tour is a 45-day, 3,200-mile trek across America to deliver an inspirational message meant to motivate individuals, businesses and communities to improve health. The journey began on August 22 in California and finishes on October 7 in New York.

Speakers Include:

• Gary Earl, founder and creator of Journey for Health
• Lance Chrisman, executive director of WellPoint Foundation

"By many measures, this generation of kids is less healthy than their parents were at the same age," said Lance Chrisman, executive director of the WellPoint Foundation. "Together, through Journey for Health and the Triple Play program, we're working to raise awareness of this critical issue, and give the next generation of leaders the tools they need to improve health and strengthen their communities. It's going to be a great Summit."

"The Triple Play Leadership Summit at the Olympic Training Center is a fantastic opportunity for Club kids from around the country to come together to discuss and experience the ultimate in health and wellness," said Erika Von Heiland Strader, director of community marketing, Coca-Cola North America. "By empowering our young people to influence their peers and community to increase their health and fitness levels, we're building a solid path to a healthier future."

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, more than 4,000 Clubs serve some 4 million young people annually through Club membership and community outreach.

Clubs are located in cities, towns, public housing and on Native American lands throughout the country, and serve military families in BGCA-affiliated Youth Centers on U.S. military installations worldwide. They provide a safe place, caring adult mentors, fun, friendship, and high-impact youth development programs on a daily basis during critical non-school hours. Priority programs emphasize 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://www.bgca.org/facebook and http://bgca.org/twitter.

Triple Play: A Game Plan for the Mind, Body and Soul
Triple Play, a healthy lifestyles 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. The goal of Triple Play is to encourage kids to eat healthier, 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. Triple Play includes five program components, each of which serves between 20,000 and 500,000 youth annually.  Since its inception in 2005, Triple Play has made more than 7.2 million connections with kids across the country. 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.

SOURCE Boys & Girls Clubs of America