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GNT Holdings Partners with
TECHFIT to Get Kids Up and Active
S
tudents in Fort Mill, South Carolina, are playing their way to
a healthier lifestyle, and a local Planet Fitness® wants in on the
action.
Last summer, five teachers from Springfield Middle School
attended a one-week training session at the College of Charleston
in order to bring a program to their school that embodies the
convergence of science and technology with a fitness focus.
TECHFIT, which stands for Teaching Engineering Concepts
to Harness Future Innovators and Technologists, is funded by a
$1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation and is
in its second year. The program, which aims to spark interest in
the STEM fields, revolves around teachers and students creating
technology-based fitness games.
Springfield Middle School, which boasts roughly 60
TECHFIT students, coded and designed two games, one a spinoff
of Monopoly and the other of Battleship. These “exergames” are
life-size games dedicated to getting people up and having fun.
“At GNT, we felt that this program was a great fit for us in
our local community and our desire to help people,” said GNT
Holdings franchisee Gerald Kennedy. “According to the President’s
Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, 17 percent of children
in the Unites States are obese, and overweight children have a 70
percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults. We want
to get children involved in fitness at a younger age when it is easier
to develop fitness as a habit.”
One of the teachers working with the TECHFIT program
reached out to the local GNT Holdings Planet Fitness club hoping
to get help paying for T-shirts and transportation to a competition.
The club donated $1,500 to cover the entire cost for both program
needs.
“It was extremely helpful to have to funds from Planet Fitness.
Because of their generosity, we did not have to ask students to
provide funds for the competition. This allowed students to partici-
pate and travel without the strain of finances,” said Laura Merk,
one of the Springfield Middle School teachers working on the
program. “Additionally, it helped us all focus on the task at hand
and allowed us to spend more time using the technology
and learning about fitness. It is rare and was particularly
valuable that our time could completely be devoted to
our goals instead of fundraising and collecting money.”
In addition to the funds for shirts and transporta-
tion, Planet Fitness also donated branded goodies such as
drawstring bags and water bottles.
The TECHFIT students met two times a week after
school until 4:45. The trained teachers first used that
time to teach the students programming, coding, fitness
concepts and fitness activities, but soon the time transitioned to
students actually creating the programs and animations.
For the TECHFIT competition, Springfield Middle School students created
two “exergames” based on popular board games – one a spinoff of Monopoly
and the other of Battleship.