Pope Grant
Published 12:00 am Friday, January 30, 2009
Lena-Grace Franklin (right), a second grader at Pope School, is doing crunches as a part of the “Circuit Training” taught in Dixie Pogue’s P.E. class. Students participating in the background are Desiree Lloyd and Bianca Hill. The Panolian photo by Emily Williams
By Rita Howell
On the heels of an announcement earlier this month that Pope School will get a new play gym, the South Panola School District announced this week that Pope School has been awarded a $26,000 physical education grant to purchase indoor and outdoor fitness equipment.
The school’s physical education teacher, Dixie Pogue, explained that the grant is sponsored by The Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation to establish the Project Fit America youth fitness initiative statewide.
A total of $1.5 million has been pledged to develop the program in 60 schools to serve as a state model and pilot for the Project Fit America program.
Project Fit America is a non-profit which provides funding and support to schools to increase fitness testing levels and teach healthy habits to children in grades K-8.
The program will begin in the fall.
This grant will also provide two years of teacher training as well as new curriculum and lesson plan support materials, according to Pogue.
“Without the support from the greatest faculty and administration in the world this outstanding award would not have even been possible,” said school principal Susan Vance.
The grant announced this week is the third awarded to Pope School in recent years to promote physical education and health.
