Child obesity plan gets donation
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LAFAYETTE — In the past school year, 6,000 children were monitored by one university research center as part of a study to combat childhood obesity.
Now, a donation of $400,000 will enable a statewide study of public schoolchildren’s health.
The donation to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Cecil J. Picard Center for Child Development and Lifelong Learning was made by the Special Children’s Foundation.
This past school year, the Picard Center oversaw the implementation of Fitnessgram, a software program that enables individualized monitoring of students physical activity and health. The program was piloted with 6,000 students in 12 parishes: Caddo, DeSoto, Lincoln, Ouachita, Sabine, Natchitoches, Morehouse, West Feliciana, Orleans, St. Mary, St. Martin and Lafayette.
The data from the pilot program is still under review, but reports of preliminary findings have been passed on to participating school districts, said Billy Stokes, Picard Center’s director.
Senate Bill 309, which would expand the Fitnessgram program to all public school districts, is pending in the Legislature. Texas has already implemented the program statewide, said Stokes said.
“If Texas can implement it to 2.8 million children, I think we can implement it to 700,000 children in the public school system in the state,” Stokes said.
The $400,000 donation is the final installment of the foundation’s $1 million contribution to the center and will assist with the longitudinal study as well as enable the center to help those districts which may need assistance with the program implementation.
The foundation, founded by Baton Rouge philanthropist Loyd Rockhold, has been a partner in the center’s efforts and also contributed $2 million to the construction of a permanent building for the center.
Stokes said the donation will also help support an endowed chair in children’s health created with the foundation’s assistance.
Rockhold, his wife, and his daughter, Sharon Holder, the foundation’s president, presented an oversized display check to Stokes, ULL President Joseph Savoie and university officials Thursday.
The center’s research on children’s health builds upon the vision of the late Picard to improve the lives of Louisiana’s school children, said his son, Tyron Picard.
Given the national epidemic of childhood obesity, the new research “will put our university and the work done here on the cutting edge,” Tyron Picard said.
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