Dear Editor:

Increasingly, we are seeing the effects of a sedentary lifestyle on the overall health of our children. As a result of less activity, recreating electronically, and consuming an improper diet, the incidence of obesity has more than doubled in the last 30 years. The impact of  poor health habits are staggering-the nation spends more than $100 billion per year on lifestyle related disease as a result of inactivity and dietary deficiencies. These factors contribute to more than 300,000 deaths per year in the United States.

Many of our children simply do not get enough daily vigorous physical activity. The Surgeonís Generalís Report on Physical Activity and Health recommends that daily physical education be provided for all children, K-12. Many schools do not have adequate programs, funding, or sufficient time allotted to physical education to meet these recommendations.

The Physical Education for Progress Act (PEP), introduced by Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), is designed to ameliorate these specific health concerns. The PEP Act would authorize $400 million over a five year period for grants to local education agencies for physical education programs. The grants could be used to provide physical education equipment and support to students, to enhance physical education curricula, and to train and reducate physical education teachers on the importance of physical activity in sustaining an active lifestyle.

I encourage you to support this legislation by contacting Senator Judd Gregg at 202-224-3324 or Senator Bob Smith at 202-224-2841. You can help make it possible for our students to gain the knowledge, skills, and dispositions in adopting a healthy, physically active lifestyle. We must reinstill the necessity and value of physical activity for all. The passage of this bill will not only benefit the health and well-being of our children today, it will contribute to a healthier society for the future.

Once again, I urge you to contact Senators Gregg and Smith in support of the PEP Act.

Michelle Grenier
New Hampshire State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance