Body Walk in Hinds County, Wilkins Elementary May 12, 2011

Body Walk’s last trip of the year was to Wilkins Elementary in Jackson MS. This is a great elementary school. Eugenia Smith booked Body Walk for her county. Everyone was very excited to have BW come. The station volunteers did a lovely job and they had a lot of enthusiasm for presenting the material to the over 500 K-Fifth grade students who came through. Each teacher got a stack of activity books for her students when they finished the tour, and each child got a BW sticker to proudly wear home.

A pretty smile is a great asset to teach children why and how to brush their teeth.

I love this healthy lung poster, and the lady wearing it did a great job as a station presenter.

It takes fewer muscles to smile than frown, so smiling is relaxing.

Building strong bones is what Calci.M.Bone is all about!

Shirley Wilson did a good job organizing everything for BW to come to her school. Everyone was in place when they needed to be and all the groups came on time for their tour. It was a pleasure to work with her.  The media came, two television stations and one newspaper. They all learned that BW is about helping children learn how to be smart from the inside out. As they tour the exhibit, the kids learn how to keep different organs in peak condition. When they keep their organs healthy, they are keeping their whole body healthy.

Body Walk hits the road again in September. We are already booked solid until December! Be sure to check back from time to time over the summer. Good health doesn’t take off for the summer and BW posts won’t either. Check back to see what summer surprises are in store.

Body Walk in Lowndes County, Caledonia Elementary May 3, 2011

This latest trip for Body Walk was mercifully, thankfully, a peaceful, uneventful one. Horrible tornadoes ripped through MS on Wed, April 27th. Terrible devastation cut through many MS counties and towns. Body Walk set up in Caledonia on the 26th and saw 500 kids on the 27th. While we monitored the weather reports and warnings all day, we were able to carry on without interruption all day.

We set up on Tuesday, with no idea of the weather events to come. All the volunteers worked hard and quickly. They did a great job. Some bad weather rolled through the state Tuesday night. Wednesday, everyone was on high alert, but no one wanted to cancel unless absolutely needed. We were able to see all the children scheduled to come. No sirens sounded, and no one had to sit in the hall (the safest place for students during severe weather.) The children were not dismissed early and the only weather we experienced was some rain and some wind. Everything went around us.

Lowndes and several neighboring counties lost power late Wednesday afternoon. The county schools for Lowndes were closed Thursday, and so we did not get to see the children who were scheduled to come through on that day. While the students were a little disappointed, all the adults were thankful the school wasn’t damaged and no one was hurt.

We took down the exhibit on Friday. All the volunteers did a good job. Our prayers go out to everyone in MS who is still recovering, and will be recovering for weeks and months to come.

Body Walk will next travel to Hinds county.