WASHINGTON — Want your kids to improve their grades? Getting them to exercise may help.
And this week, Baltimore-based Under Armour sponsored donations of sports equipment to four area schools: Kelly Miller Middle School and Ross Elementary School in D.C., and New Song Academy and Jeffers Hill Elementary in Baltimore.
“You should see some of the research. Kids who are active every day versus kids who are not — they’re doing dramatically better in school,” said Jim Baugh, founder of PHIT America.
PHIT (Personal Health Investment Today) uses money from corporations and individual donors to bolster school physical education programs with things such as sports equipment, curricula, training and, in some cases, transportation.
“We gotta get these kids moving, so it pumps blood to their brain and they learn better,” Baugh said. “The sit-and-learn approach to education is failing us.”
PHIT America GO! Grants differ depending on the needs of the school applying for help.
“It’s a matter of what will get those kids off the couch and away from their desks for a few moments to get them active in school-based programs,” Baugh said.
In the past two years, PHIT America — with the support of a nonprofit called Kids in the Game — has helped physical education programs in nearly 300 schools nationwide.
Nearly half of the high schools in America have no gym class, Baugh said, and many have cut recess.
