Dear Friends,
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, things were plenty rough for the thousands of underserved youth whom we impact with our structured fitness programs.
Their communities already endured a huge gap in fitness opportunities and health outcomes, such as disproportionately high rates of obesity, juvenile diabetes, and other physical and mental health challenges. The pandemic widens these disparities and continues to wreak havoc in the communities that Fit Kids serves.
But we and our partner schools and community centers continue to combat those trends. Partners provided great feedback and much appreciation for the Home Workout videos we created soon after in-person programming shut down. One partner, the Saint Sebastian Sports Project, even requested Fit Kids programming and gained funding for it at 35 more of their schools in some of the hardest-hit parts of Los Angeles.
Working throughout the spring and summer to keep kids moving and fit, we created nearly 150 new videos, showing full workouts, how-to instruction for the fitness moves, and guided yoga and mindfulness practices. We will roll those out on our website this month and introduce a pilot program, sending Home Fitness Bags to at least 1,000 students.
Thanks to our many partners and supporters, Fit Kids as an organization is making the best of these worst of times, so that the communities we serve can do the same.