The Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County won a national recognition for the third year in a row for its local health development program last week.
The Woodland Park campus, located at 1900 SE Fourth St., announced Mar. 11 that the program earned the National Honor Award for Program Excellence for its Club FIT fitness and health education program.
The program competed with 4,000 other Boys and Girls Clubs from across the nation.
Natalya Bannister, Southeast Gainesville area director and program designer, said she felt honored her program took the top prize.
“Making sure kids find exercise fun and interesting, as well as learning why it needs to be happening in their life, is important,” she said. “That’s more important than the prestige.”
Keith Blanchard, president and CPO for the Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County, said the success of the program came with its ability to make health education and exercise fun for the children with limited resources.
“The fact that we have been able to produce this result is impressive,” he said.
The success also lies with the volunteers, Bannister said. In the past, UF football players went to the campus to play flag football with the children while nursing school students taught health education.
Blanchard agreed.
“The fact that the kids get to see up close and talk to and hang out with their heroes, it definitely has an immediate impact on them,” he said.
For Blanchard, the biggest impact is the small changes children in the program have made, especially in their eating habits.
“If they ask for a snack, they ask for an apple instead of a candy bar,” he said. “There are little, subtle changes with this new knowledge, and it’s a pretty positive change.”
Woodrow, 10, slides on the playground at the Woodland Park campus of the Alachua County Boys and Girls Club. It earned the National Honor Award for Program Excellence.
