1st Annual Wellness Leadership Award
Commit to Be Fit presented their first annual Wellness Leadership Award at the RCPS Celebration of Service Awards Ceremony on May 31st to RCES Principal, Ben Temple.
According to the team, during the award presentation, "Not only did Mr. Temple allow us to build our Action Based Learning Lab, he whole heartedly embraced it by adding it into the regular exploratory rotation. He even assigned Jen, who has been such a gem, to our lab on a permanent basis. His enthusiasm for the lab and the science behind it is quite contagious and has trickled down to the staff, the parents, and the students. In addition, Mr. Temple created the staff wellness challenge which coincided with our 6 month challenge. Four teams competed in a variety of monthly challenges. As the team captain of his team, RCES HEROES, Mr. Temple organized a team hike and even arranged for his team members to bring in different colored vegetables during our Color Your Plate challenges. It’s worth mentioning that his team also won the staff wellness challenge. Mr. Temple’s enthusiasm and passion for our youth and their well being is evident in all the work that he does. Commit to Be Fit is thankful for his leadership in creating a healthier culture in our schools. It is with great honor that we award our first ever Wellness Leadership Award to Mr. Ben Temple."
In addition, the team acknowledged and thanked all of the staff for making the program a success throughout the school year.
"From administrators in the high school, Karen Ellis and Jimmy Swindler, who let us have a designated space to create our workout room and staff wellness room—to the administrators at the elementary school, Ben Temple and Dawn Phillips, for their amazing support with the Action Based Learning Lab-- to the ladies in the cafeteria for all their hard work preparing fresh fruits and vegetables—to all the elementary staff that competed in the staff wellness competition—to Traci Dippert who generously offered up her classroom twice a week when we needed a larger space for yoga—to Gail Czekaj and Mike Myers who have routinely taught multiple cardio classes each week—to the 50 staff members that attended on our ABL trainings during the school year-- to Jen Atkins who has worked tirelessly and passionately to make ABL the success that it has become-- to our superintendent (and cheerleader in chief), Ms. Grimsley (soon to be Dr. Grimsley), who created the program and secured the grant funding that made this possible—to each and every one of you who have served as a wellness role model to our youth—Commit to Be Fit would like to thank you all."
Commit to Be Fit is a school sponsored, grant funded program that offers fun challenges, weekly exercise classes and wellness workshops for the Rappahannock County community. Through the generosity of the PATH Foundation, C2BF was created to promote healthier lifestyles for students, staff, and county residents/employees. All classes, workshops, and events are free of charge and held at the Rappahannock County Public Schools. Everyone in the community is invited to attend.
