Los Angeles Marathon Kids®
Mayor Villaraigosa to run
Final Mile with children!
10 a.m. sharp!
Sat, March 10
UCLA Drake Track & Field Stadium
Olympians, UCLA Athletes with LA Unified and other K-5th children, families
Ceremonial Last Mile
FREE, six month, nationally recognized 26.2 mile incremental, running/walking, nutrition and schoolyard garden program!
Presented by
Whole Foods Market
Austin--Thousands of little Los Angeles area K-5th grade school children and parents have been running and walking 26.2 miles over the last six months, with their parents and/or at school. Coloring in their incremental running logs in ¼ to ½ mile segments, they also have been coloring in each day they eat 5-a-day fruits and veggies. Besides running/walking 26.2 miles over six months, their goal was to eat 26.2 days a month of 5-a-day fruits and veggies, to fuel their running and walking!
On Saturday, March 10, at 10 a.m., they gather together in a glorious ceremonial Final Mile at UCLA, as they finish what seemed at first an insurmountable project: Marathon Kids.
In its first year in Los Angeles, the nationally acclaimed, free Marathon Kids® running/walking and nutrition program expects 5,000 of the 10,000 registered Los Angeles children to run at UCLA Drake Track & Field Stadium..
The stadium is graciously donated by UCLA Athletics. The little Marathon Kids will be running with their Mayor, UCLA Athletes, Olympians! As they go through the balloon arches of the Start and then the Finish Line, UCLA Athletes, teachers, community runner volunteers, USC and UCLA students, will drape each “Finisher” with a hard-earned Finisher Medal.
This past October, the K-5th graders shyly or boldly raised their hand in class and said "Yes! I think I can run/walk 26.2 miles over the next six months! And, yes, I will commit to running 1/4 to 1/2 mile either at school or with my parents!" The net is thrown wide. All children can be Marathon Kids: fast/slow, overweight/slender, rich/poor, sighted/blind, able/disabled, deaf/hearing. Parents join in with the children, as the children work hard through classroom offering and/or at home, coloring in their incremental miles and learning to make healthy food choices.
The free Marathon Kids six month program is presented in the Los Angeles area to public and private school districts, homeschools, private schools, by Whole Foods Market.
Classroom teachers are a critical conduit for Marathon Kids curriculum, encouraging a lifetime of physical activity and health for children. These teachers integrate the program as a key element in their ongoing goal setting, activity and nutrition work, set by Marathon Kids and the California Standards for Physical Education. It is the fervent goal of Marathon Kids to build habits over the six months not only of a lifetime of physical activity but also to nurture the vital promotion of more Physical Education for all children in Los Angeles and California.
The average completion rate for the program in 2005-2006 was 83%.
Marathon Kids® is a ten year old non-profit. It is now in Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Rio Grande Valley. There are over 100,000 K-5th graders now in the nationally recognized, free Marathon Kids program. Marathon Kids target market are those children with highest genetic predisposition to childhood obesity, Type 2 diabetes: African American, Hispanic and Native American children. There are 294 towns and cities on the Marathon Kids waiting list, as well as 14 foreign countries.
Community runners, Principals, Classroom Teachers, local fitness enthusiasts, Whole Foods Market Team Members, community volunteers, all make the Final Mile event a glorious experience for the little children.
At the free Final Mile Medal Celebration, Olympians and UCLA Athletes, as well as Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa will run with the “Flag Lap Marathon Kids” in the ceremonial flag lap. A soloist will sing “America the Beautiful”.
Acting as Honor Guard to the LAUSD Flag Lappers, in the opening, ceremonial flag lap will be:
- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles
- Marci Frumkin, Whole Foods Market Team Leader
- Deidre Lind, Mattel Children’s Foundation
- Jennifer Sluder, MD, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
- Chad Fenwick, LA Unified School District Physical Education Advisor
- Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles representative
- LA Unified School Board Representative
- UCLA Athletics Representative
- Olympian representative
As all the children cross under the magnificent gold balloon arched Finish Line, after running in “rounds”, they will have EARNED free Finisher Medals, Reward Bumper Stickers. During the six month program, all incentives must be EARNED. Later in school assemblies, they will receive their Marathon Kids Finisher T-shirts.
Families with questions about Marathon Kids should visit http://www.MarathonKids.com/ or ask their teachers or Principal about participation.
Marathon Kids® was featured in the December issue of Runners World Magazine as one of 2005’s Ten Inspirational Heroes of Running. It has been showcased in The Weekly Reader, Scholastic News, USA Today, Nurses Digest, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Austin American Statesman, Her Sport Magazine., Prevention Magazine, CNN etc. The free Los Angeles Marathon Kids program just received the national Saucony “Run for Good” Award, as well as a grant from the Mattel Children’s Foundation. The LA program also has an upcoming feature in Nick Jr Magazine.
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..a global collaboration of families running/walking and making healthy food choices
Our Mission: Marathon Kids® is a ten year old, free, endurance building running/walking/nutrition/gardening program for kindergartners through 5th graders. Our mission is to build joyful community around children and be quickly accepted into public, private and home schools as a free, innovative celebratory fitness program, resonating with the child…and with the child's family. The goal is for the child to develop the love and habit of moving through space and to carry forward the power of muscular, nutritional and psychological well being.
Volunteer? shaverdi@usc.edu
Media? Sponsorship? Questions? Kay@MarathonKids.com
Contributions? www.MarathonKids.com Thank you!
