HEALTH NEWS
September 28, 2007
A Day to Play
Kids' cable channel asks its audience to take a break for a good cause.
Nickelodeon has some advice for you: Go outside! Tomorrow, September 29, the network and it's website will go off the air from 12PM to 3PM as part of its fourth annual Worldwide Day of Play.
 |  BARBARA NITKE—NICKELODEON April Zhang took a challenge to give up junk food. |
Hundreds of thousands of kids in the United States and in 14 countries around the world are expected to join in. The goal is to inspire kids to fight childhood obesity. "Nickelodeon has always been committed to the health and wellness of its young viewers," Jean Margaret Smith, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Administration at Nickelodeon told TFK. "On Worldwide Day of Play the network puts its full arsenal behind spreading the message of a healthy and balanced lifestyle by encouraging kids to get up, get out and go play!" When kids turn on the channel they will see an animated segment suggesting they turn off the tube and find a way to be active instead.
|  WESLEY HITT—GETTY IMAGES FOR NICKELODEON |
This year, nearly 800,000 kids signed Nickelodeon's online pledge to make healthy changes in their daily lives. And for the second year, as part of the Let's Just Play Go Healthy Challenge TV-show, the cable channel chose two young volunteers to be role models for kids to follow.
For six months, Kenedrick Scorza, 13, from Arkansas and April Zhang, 12, from Pennsylvania trained very hard to achieve a healthier lifestyle. "I thought that if I kept going the way that I was, I might have ended up getting diabetes or a heart condition," Kenedrick told TFK. "I decided to take the challenge for my brother who was 26 years old when he had a stroke, and for my grandmother who has diabetes," he says.
Reaching their goalsCoaches guided the pair through a rigorous training program, which included tips on how to exercise more efficiently and ways to improve their diet. Tomorrow afternoon, when Nickelodeon returns to the air, it will broadcast a behind-the-scenes look at Kenedrick and April's journey.
Included in the highlights will be the story of how Kenedrick reached his goal of taking part in a triathlon. And finishing! On August 11, after training for 525 hours and losing 36 pounds, Kenedrick completed the Conway Kids' Triathlon, "I had to learn how to ride a bike. It took me forever!" he says. "I also had to learn how to swim and run. It was hard at first, but now I can run a mile with no problem."
For April, the challenge was to change how she ate."My life was basically junk food," she told TFK. "That's what I ate everyday. I know that it was time to change and have a healthier lifestyle." April vowed to get fit enough to try out for her school's volleyball team. Along the way, she learned how to eat better to increase her energy levels. The hardest part, she says was giving up the foods that she loved, "It was tough. I had to replace my French fries, potato chips and fried food with vegetables and salad." But, in the end and after all the sacrifice, April made the team.
Both Kenedrick and April plan to stick to their goals and follow their coaches' advice, even after the cameras stop rolling. So what's next for the newly fit and healthy duo? "Right now, I'm working on training to take part in the American Heart Association's 5K race in 2008," says Kenedrick. And April? "I'm going to try to keep up with everything I learned," she says. I won't go back to my old habits. I want to inspire kids to push themselves, like I did."
