COLUMBIA – A group of students at Easley’s Gettys Middle School has been selected as All-Health Team winners for its “Reading and Riding” project, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control announced today.
“The project encourages students to read while riding spinner bikes in the gym during their physical education class,” said Josh Castleman, physical education teacher at Gettys Middle School. “They select books and magazine articles that are relevant to healthy living and current events, then read while they ride.”
According to Castleman, the program was started to address obesity and poor reading skills because many middle school students deal with those issues.
Castleman said the school wants to create a “Reading and Riding” room equipped with enough spinner bikes for a typical class of 25 students. They plan to promote the program and its results in the school newspaper.
For being named to the All-Health Team, Gettys Middle’s “Reading and Riding” project will receive a $500 grant, t-shirts and other All-Health Team items, recognition on the All-Health Team Web site and a television spot on WIS-TV in Columbia.
DHEC and WIS-TV sponsor the All-Health Team. Each month, the partnership recognizes an individual or youth group promoting health in their community. For more information, visit the All-Health Team Web site at: http://www.scdhec.gov/allhealth, call Joann Moton Minder at (803) 545-4501 or e-mail her at minderjm@dhec.sc.gov.