Fitness marathon
A group of 230 Kyiv schoolchildren between 8 and 12 years old recently took part in a nationwide charity event, a first for Ukraine.
The hosts of the Children’s Fitness Marathon were the well known actors Olha Sumska and Vitalii Borysiuk. Through games and demonstrations the event’s organizers presented the social program “Fitness in Schools,” held within the framework of the international Wellness Forum in Ukraine.
The word “wellness” has entered the lexicons of many languages and means a state of physical and emotional wellness, a feeling of complete health and harmony of body and soul. The organizers of the Children’s Fitness Marathon reflected on the problems that are threatening young people’s health and then decided to initiate a socially significant charitable event.
According to Olena Yakymenko, the project initiator and president of the company Beauty Forum, “This program is supposed to lay the foundations for a healthy lifestyle among schoolchildren, create an exciting school program, and in this way support the initiative of Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, which is focusing a lot of attention on restoring the health of the nation by introducing children’s programs. We hope that a healthy life style and engaging in sports and fitness will effectively help avert drug addiction and antisocial behavior.”
Celebrity fitness instructors from the US, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, Russia, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and Ukraine performed on stage. During the breaks between sets children enjoyed having their photographs taken, collected autographs, and quizzed the instructors. Vlada Lytovchenko and Olena Yakymenko demonstrated all the advantages of fitness exercises, standing in one row with the children on the set of Kimberly Jay, the founder and teacher of a London dance school and the choreographer of different dance styles, including hip hop freestyle, popping, locking, battling, and krumping, for the girl who dances in the NIKE ad and Madonna’s music video “Hung Up.”
Many well-known Ukrainian athletes and representatives of our country’s cultural and political elite agreed to support the fitness action. Together with trainers of wellness and fitness clubs, and rejuvenating beauty centers, they will teach children from schools, boarding schools and children’s homes how to develop a responsible attitude toward their health. The first lessons will start in Kyiv schools as early as November. The program’s initiators plan to hold sports festivals twice a year: the Children’s Fitness Marathon during the Wellness Forum and on Children’s Protection Day.
“Without changing the school curriculum,” says Viktor Knevets, the best fitness director of the CIS-2000, an instructor, personal aerobics trainer, Ukrainian champion, and the winner of the Ukraine Cup in sports aerobics, “our trainers will conduct fitness classes for children, teachers, and parents free of charge. At first, the lessons will be held in Kyiv, and later in other cities of Ukraine.”
As our country tries actively to integrate into the world community, every citizen of Ukraine has to realize that a healthy life style is a guarantee of our country’s success.
