| Puppets Awarded $52,500 to Fight Childhood Obesity
Miami, FL--- MicheLee Puppets, Inc. has received a $52,500 grant from Aetna Foundation to fight childhood obesity. Aetna Foundation has sponsored MicheLee Puppets’ EXTREME Health Challenge in 58 Broward and Dade elementary schools this year. Aetna Foundation has generously invested $177,500, since 2006, in MicheLee Puppets’ unique approach to childhood obesity prevention. The statewide partnership has benefited more than 70,500 elementary students in Broward and Dade counties alone, giving students the information they need to make healthy choices.
MicheLee Puppets’ EXTREME Health Challenge, is a live theatrical production that promotes healthy eating and physical activity among Florida’s children and their families. Recognized by national and local funders, the United States Department of Health and Human Services Innovations Exchange, and featured in the Robert Wood Johnson Anthology To Improve Health and Health Care, Volume XIII, the action-packed performance features wacky puppet characters and audience participation in the format of popular TV game shows.
The crisis of childhood obesity has grabbed national headlines, especially with the recent Let’s Move campaign initiated by First Lady Michelle Obama. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years". The Obesity Society reports, "...one in five children in the US is overweight". According to The American Diabetes Association , the consequences of obesity to the individual include health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, lower quality of life, and shorter lifespan.
"We can do something to stop the obesity trend through prevention and education. The grant from Aetna Foundation has enable EXTREME Health Challenge to educate children and their families throughout Florida about how to create healthy habits for a lifetime," stated Tracey Conner, Executive Director of MicheLee Puppets.
Tracey Conner accepted the $52,500 check from Aetna Foundation at a performance of EXTREME Health Challenge at Pine Lake Elementary School in Miami.
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| MicheLee Puppets receives $15,000 grant Orlando, FL (January 5, 2010)---MicheLee Puppets, Inc. has received a $15,000 grant from the Health Foundation of South Florida for EXTREME Health Challenge, a theatrical performance that will tour elementary schools in Dade and Broward Counties and teach children how to make positive choices about nutrition and physical activity.
Building on 25 years of experience creating live puppetry performances for schools, MicheLee Puppets is teaming up with the Health Foundation of South Florida to work toward lowering obesity rates in children. The EXTREME Health Challenge uses an interactive game show format to promote healthy nutrition and physical activity for children grades K-5 in Florida schools. Through a series of challenges, battles of wit, audience participation, and puppetry mayhem, children laugh and learn about the importance of good nutrition and active lifestyles. The performance and accompanying activity guides assist educators in meeting Sunshine State Standards.
“The arts, and specifically theatre, have been used throughout history to teach,” stated Tracey Conner, Executive Director of MicheLee Puppets. “Since 1985 we have taught more than 1.6 million children how to make positive choices while dealing with difficult situations such as bullying, domestic violence, racism, and sexual assault. The countless letters from teachers and students in support of our performances tell us that we are making a difference!”
About MicheLee Puppets
MicheLee Puppets (www.micheleepuppets.org), Florida’s premier puppetry arts company was founded in 1985 to empower lives through the art of puppetry.
Committed to serving the children of Florida, MicheLee Puppets brings exciting, educational and entertaining issue-based productions to more than 100,000 young people each year. Topics address the critical and challenging issues students face today including: bully prevention, domestic violence prevention, healthy lifestyles, and sexual assault prevention. Through gripping performances young people learn respect, personal responsibility, and how to make positive life choices.
About Health Foundation of South Florida
Health Foundation of South Florida, a nonprofit grant making organization, is dedicated to improving health in Broward, Dade and Monroe Counties. By funding providers and supporting programs to promote health and prevent disease, the Foundation makes a measurable and sustainable impact in the health of individuals and families. Since 1993, the Foundation has awarded more than $90 million in grants and program support. For more information, please call 305.374.7200 or visit their Web site at http://www.hfsf.org/.
For more information, call Denise Lucich at 407-898-7925 or visit w.micheleepuppets.org.
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| Puppets Embrace a Healthy Florida
Jacksonville, FL (January 4, 2010) --- MicheLee Puppets’ EXTREME Health Challenge and Embrace a Healthy Florida, an initiative of the The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida, have teamed-up to promote nutrition and physical activity to local students at three elementary schools this week. Students at Brentwood Elementary, Carter G. Woodson Elementary, and Smart Pope Livingston Elementary will learn they have the power to make healthy choices.
In the game show tradition EXTREME Health Challenge’s wacky and entertaining puppet characters, along with Duval County students, will face a series of challenges, battles of wit, and puppetry mayhem. Children laugh and learn about the importance of good nutrition and active lifestyles. The students along with Puppet Rico B. Kuhl, self-professed “King of Reggeton,” learn that looking good is more than picture-perfect hair.
MicheLee Puppets (www.micheleepuppets.org), Florida’s premier puppetry arts theatre company was founded in 1985 to empower lives through the art of puppetry. Committed to serving the children of Florida, MicheLee Puppets brings exciting, educational and entertaining issue-based productions to more than 100,000 young people each year. Topics address the critical and challenging issues students face in today’s global community including: bully prevention, domestic violence safety, healthy lifestyles, sexual assault prevention, and respect for self and others. Through gripping performances young people learn respect, personal responsibility, and how to make positive life choices.
Now in its 24th season, MicheLee Puppets has served more than 1.6 million Florida students with school and community presentations. The ability to effectively communicate difficult messages in a compelling and nonthreatening way has lead to national recognition by the Puppeteers of America, bestowing MicheLee Puppets with the Marjorie Batchelder McPharlin Award for Excellence in Educational Puppetry, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant for their statewide production of EXTREME Health Challenge.
The Blue Foundation for a Healthy Florida supports community–based solutions that enchance access to quality health-related services for the uninsured and underserved in Florida. The Blue Foundtion created Embrace a Healthy Florida to address the causes of childhood obesity that goes beyond the traditional nutrition and fitness programs.
For more information, call Denise Lucich at 407-898-7925 or visit www.micheleepuppets.org.
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