One of our Challenge for a Healthier Louisiana partners is making news again! This time, one of our teachers, BR FLAIM’s PE teacher, Bonnie Richardson, was named Project Fit America‘s 2014 Teacher of the Year! News station WAFB was there for a ceremony at the school to recognize this veteran teacher (who carries 32 years experience in health education).
“It such a tremendous honor,” she told us after picking up her award. “I’m humbled and so thrilled!”
Richardson was quick to also thank those who made the program she leads possible, including Challenge Grant, which supports Fresh Beginnings, the wellness initiative that put Project Fit America curriculum into Richardson’s school.
“I’m so lucky to have been a part of this wonderful program,” she said. “I’m just blessed to have been in the right place at right time, to get this grant in my school and see how it’s benefiting our kids. It’s an important curriculum and our kids are getting healthier from it.”
Adds Lyndsi Lambert, project leader for Fresh Beginnings, “I can think of no one more deserving of PFA’s All-Star Teacher of the Year Award than Bonnie Richardson! Bonnie has gone above and beyond incorporating PFA’s indoor and outdoor equipment into her classes. And by inviting her students to keep food journals, she gets them talking about health and fitness with their families at home as well. She leads walking and dancing routines every morning before the school bell rings and after school, she organizes fitness clubs, like tennis and marathon running. She even helped us get BREC on the Geaux (mobile playground) to visit BR FLAIM once a week for more structured recess time!”
And, Lambert tells us, this is not the first time Richardson has been honored for her outstanding work.
“Did I mention,” Lambert said, “that she was also selected as the 2013 Outstanding Dance Teacher of the Year by the Louisiana Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Association? Baton Rouge is incredibly lucky to have her!”
And after receiving the award during school hours yesterday, she paused to celebrate with her collection of PE students — by assigning running and jump rope exercises, of course!
“Yeah, I sure did,” she tells us. “I actually did!”
For more on yesterday’s award ceremony, check out WAFB’s news feature (below):
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) –
A Baton Rouge P.E. teacher was surprised Wednesday with a national award.
Ms. Bonnie Richardson at the Foreign Language Academic Immersion School is now Project Fit America’s teacher of the year.
Representatives from Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden’s office and local hospitals recognized Richardson for her lessons in getting kids moving.
She says it’s all about the kids.
“It’s doing for them,” she said. “Trying to make them healthier. Trying to get them up and get them moving and doing things so that they can have healthier lives, too. Get them away from the computers, get them up and moving 60 minutes a day.”
Ms. Richardson says she will keep working to get her students up and moving.