Genesis program addresses childhood obesity with a jump rope marathon

Kyle Knox

Gila River Indian News

With September recognized as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, the Genesis Program hosted, for the first time, a Virtual Jump Rope Marathon for children in the Community Monday, Sept. 28 and Wednesday, Sept. 30.  The event was held over the WebEx virtual meeting platform and challenged children to perform as many individual jumps to encourage healthy movement and activity.

Program Manager Kyrie Dukepoo said, “Normally, the kids learn how to jump rope in PE class, but with no access to PE teachers, they don’t have that at the moment.” This event will help fill a significant gap for home school children that have little to no physical activities. Many students will now have the equipment necessary to promote physical activity safely at home by providing jump ropes.

On Monday and Wednesday evening, parents and children logged on to their devices, observed a quick demonstration, and began the competition performing as many jumps for as long as possible. Eventually, time and fatigue set in, leaving few remaining and winners declared. Monday night’s marathon ended in a tie between Zachary Antone  and Josiah Antone jumping for 10 minutes, and Wednesday night’s marathon ended with Mark Sanchez III & Breiah Miguel declared the winnera jumping for a total of 10 minutes.

Genesis also achieved another goal for the event.  Dukepoo stated, “We want to connect the kids so they can see each other and have an event, just for them, so they feel like someone’s reaching out to them and providing healthy activity and community connection.” 

Why jump rope? Jumping rope is considered one of the best means of building stamina, agility, and can improve your cardiovascular health. It utilizes numerous body parts and muscles to complete one revolution.  Another great value of jumping rope is it can enhance coordination skills. The health benefits of jumping rope is an effective activity in combating childhood obesity.

With three months left in the year, Genesis will continue to host virtual events. November is around the corner and Obesity Awareness Month, so expect to see more events planned from Genesis.

To date, they continue to offer services virtually until safe enough for in-person clientele interaction. Genesis program staff remains eager for reopening as they have a new office space in the Community. Highlighting the new office and unique initiatives will be in the GRIN’s next issue.