Partnership, Legislation Announced Today

NRPA, along with the YMCA and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), held a special launch event for a new initiative called the Partnership for Play Every Day, which will support efforts to encourage children to devote 60 minutes per day to play and exercise. More information is available at www.playeveryday.org.

During the launch event, Dr. Bill Haskell of the Stanford University School of Medicine presented a science-based report focused on the national crisis of childhood obesity and the need to do something about the sedentary culture in America. The report also calls for development of a Community Play Index that would identify local barriers that limit or prevent children from being able to play. Dr. Haskell: "We need to create a 'Generation Play.' If we don't get behind this kind of change, we are going to have Generation XXL: extra, extra large."

He added that one out of five children aged 2 to 16 is obese, and the percentage will grow unless greater opportunities for physical activity are available.

At the same event, Sena. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) announced that he is co-sponsoring landmark legislation with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) called the Promoting Lifelong Active Communities Every Day Act. The bill focuses on increasing quality play opportunities, acquisition of spaces for play, and raising voices in support of opportunities for play.

Sen. Harkin stressed that, although he believes that no child should be left behind in terms of intellectual achievement, they also shouldn't be left behind in terms of physical achievement. "Why are physical education and art teachers the first to be cut from school budgets? Aren't these things important to a child's development?"

For more information on the Promoting Lifelong Active Communities Every Day Act, visit www.nrpa.org/forum.