Game helps children be active, will
have permanent home at RAC
August 3, 2006 - ROGERS, AK —
Children slapped foam noodles against an 8-foot-tall
panel tucked in a corner of the Rogers Activity Center
gymnasium.
The preteens jumped and dipped to hit
select lit spots on the 8-foot by 4-foot panel, called
a Sportwall.
"As you can see, they really enjoy
it," said Cathy Benich, director of operations
for the Activity Center. Louis Shedd, interim assistant
director for youth programming, said the Sportwalls
come with a brochure of 80 games using everything from
tennis rackets and tennis balls to half-length foam
noodles.
Kristian Wing, 11, said she likes the
four-minute relay competition in which the children
hit the electronic targets on the panels using their
hands, foam noodles and 2-pound balls. C. J. Bishop,
10, said he just likes competing against his friends.
The Rogers Activity Center is using the
electronic props to fight childhood obesity. Demonstration
versions of the toys have been at the Activity Center
for the summer, where they are occasionally
used during Summer Day Camp.
Activity Center Director Coleta Paris
said she sees the Sportwalls as a way of initiating
physical activity in the tone of video games —
the very tools that keep many children indoors and physically
inactive.
A second-floor game room includes several
similar props: electronic dance pads, stationary bicycles
connected to PlayStation 2 racing games, and interactive
games that register swinging
baseball bats rather than the push of a button. Paris
said the games allow children to play video games in
front of television sets and still be active.
When two permanent Sportwalls arrive in
September, they will spur along changes to the Activity
Center’s downstairs game room, now dominated by
pool tables. Paris said two of the pool tables will
be shipped to the Adult Wellness Center, which will
open in September for people 50 and older, and the remaining
tables will be shifted to the back of the teen room.
The interactive video
games will be moved downstairs, and with front-desk
staff able to watch the nearby activities, the game
room will be open more frequently.
Paris has applied for two local grants
that would supply the room with resistance bands, aerobic
balls, sports balls and rackets, jump ropes, a portable
golf course, tread mills, weight machines and a Cybex
Trazer for measuring vertical jumps and side-toside
motions.
She said the grants would also pay for
a youth fitness director who would oversee the youth
room and offer classes on nutrition.
"It's going to be something that’s
not just anywhere when we get it finished," Paris
said of the renovated games room. "It's going to
be all about kids under 15 years old."
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