The Journal
By Erik M. Anderson
May 2, 2008
The children of Burke Street Elementary School joined children from 50 countries on Thursday in a program called All Children Exercise Simultaneously, or ACES, to help combat childhood obesity.
As part of the program, children marched from the school on Burke Street to to the nearby Ramer Center on West Martin Street where they listened to a special educational program about fitness, did several fun exercises and walked for a mile throughout the city before returning to school.
Principal Todd Cutlip said the program is intended to teach children the importance of exercising.
Physical education teacher Ricardo Prado, who introduced the school to the program, said it was started in 1989 by Len Saunders, a New Jersey teacher who felt children weren’t getting enough exercise.
Prado said Saunders sent out a letter to one school in every state asking that they have their children exercise between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on May 1. But word of the idea spread quickly to other schools, and 600 participated in the inaugural event. The year after, the program spread overseas and now about 50 countries are involved.