The Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, November 8, 2011 – LeGore Boys & Girls Club is set to kick off the Triple Play Get Fit Challenge, a fun, new fitness experience for the community’s youth. The Get Fit Challenge is one in a six-part series of athletic challenges that will be offered to local Club members during the next year.

As childhood obesity rates continue to climb and America’s health worsens, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) and the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation are fighting back. Today, the two organizations announced that Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis will receive a $10,000 start-up grant to implement Triple Play programming.

In addition to the start-up grant in Indianapolis, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation today also announced three additional grants to help Clubs in Indiana implement additional aspects of Triple Play.  Boys & Girls Club of Adams County received a $5,000 Healthy Habits grants to provide programming focused on teaching the importance of healthy eating habits and being physically active, and Boys & Girls Club of Huntington County and Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis each received a $1,500 Gamesroom Festival grant to bring Club members together for fun competitions that challenge their minds and build friendships.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports childhood obesity rates have nearly tripled since 1980,” said Rob Hillman, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana. “This means that our kids are less healthy than their parents were at the same age, and it means that they will face an increased risk of lifelong health challenges such as heart disease and diabetes unless we do something to help them learn healthy habits.”

The Get Fit Challenge will take Club members through a series of competitions in five areas of fitness: balance, core strength, upper body strength, agility and quickness.

“Nutrition and fitness have become recognized as essentials to health, especially among children and teens,” said Rick Whitten, Executive Director for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis. “Through the Club’s Triple Play Daily Challenge program, we are taking steps to help our members learn the importance of healthy habits.”

The Get Fit Challenge will take place on November 14, 2011 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the LeGore Boys & Girls Club. To find out more about the Get Fit Challenge please contact Juan Ongay, Unit Director at (317) 241-0594.

Additional Challenge programs being offered by the LeGore Club include the Invent-a-Sport Challenge, the Home Run Challenge, the Jump Rope Challenge, the Basketball Challenge and the Walk/Run Challenge.

Triple Play is an after-school health and wellness program, developed by Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), being offered at Clubs around the world. Triple Play, supported with a five-year, $12 million commitment from The Coca-Cola Company and Kraft Foods Inc., is the largest health and wellness endeavor ever undertaken by GBCA. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has taken a strong interest in Triple Play because it is in line with its Steps to a HealthierUS intuitive.

The Triple Play program encompasses the following three components:

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Mind- Developing a knowledge base to acquire healthy habits, such as making smart food choices, understanding appropriate portion sizes, and creating fun and healthy meals.

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Body- Becoming more physically active through daily fitness exercises and fun, including activities to get kids active and moving.

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Soul- Strengthening character and reinforcing positive behavior with social recreation activities designed to improve confidence and develop interpersonal skills.

Since 1893, Boys & Girls Clubs of Indianapolis have served the Indianapolis community.  With seven Club locations, the Clubs provide programs for over 8,000 youth in the areas of career exploration and educational enhancement, citizenship and leadership, the arts, and health and fitness. For additional information, please call 920-4700 or visit www.bgcindy.org.

Through charitable grant making, the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation LLC, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, promotes Anthem’s inherent commitment to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield serves. The Foundation focuses its funding on strategic initiatives that address and provide innovative solutions to health care challenges, as well as promoting the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative that targets specific disease states and medical conditions. These include: prenatal care in the first trimester, low birth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation. The Foundation also coordinates the company’s annual associate giving campaign and its parent foundation provides a 50 percent match of associates’ campaign pledges. ®ANTHEM is a registered trademark of Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield names and symbols are registered marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.