Armed with jump ropes and running shoes, Gilroy’s Pat Vickroy is
picking a battle with an epidemic of gigantic proportion
– children’s expanding waistlines.
Armed with jump ropes and running shoes, Gilroy’s Pat Vickroy is picking a battle with an epidemic of gigantic proportion – children’s expanding waistlines.
A physical education instructor who has taught in Gilroy for 28 years, Vickroy stands at the frontlines, using fun and innovative tactics to encourage kids, who are becoming more sedentary, to start moving.
Last year, only 17 percent of fifth-graders in Gilroy passed all six measures of the California physical fitness assessment, called the FitnessGram, compared to 35 percent of students countywide and 32 percent statewide. In Gilroy, 39 percent of fifth-graders passed five or more assessments, the threshold to be considered healthy.
“Every child in the world should be able to pass the fitness test. That’s the way the test is designed,” said Vickroy, who served on the committee that set the standards for the FitnessGram. “They’re just that out of shape. They’re too sedentary in their lifestyle.”
That couch-potato mentality has led to Gilroy having the highest percentage of overweight students in Santa Clara County. In 2005, 36 percent of Gilroy youth were overweight compared to the countywide average of 27 percent, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Realizing their school had a problem, concerned parents at Rod Kelley Elementary School asked Vickroy to put on a program called “Are You Fitter than a Fifth-Grader?” last spring.
“The group of kids we have in our school seems to be really non-fit. You can walk around our campus and see the statistics don’t lie at our school,” said Mike Menacho, president of the Rod Kelley Parent Club. “It was a no-brainer for us to get these kids in shape.”
On a weeknight, parents and their children came to the school and completed the six measures of the FitnessGram. The test involves a timed one-mile run, body mass index measure, curl-ups and push-ups, and trunk extension strength and flexibility tests. Very few of the parents passed the test.
“I did all of them myself. I had trouble with about half of those stations,” Menacho said. “It’s an eye-opener. The parents were all very surprised at how difficult it really is for the kids, because they couldn’t do it either.”
This school year, the parent club plans to invite families to participate in “Are You Fitter than a Fifth-Grader?” once this fall and again in the spring. By testing students this fall, they hope to encourage them to exercise to improve their results in the spring, when the FitnessGram is given.
“We wanted to open up the eyes of the students, showing them the value of PE and how far away they are from being physically fit,” Menacho said.
By law, schools are mandated to provide 100 minutes of physical education every week. Vickroy divides his time among four elementary schools, seeing his students for 30 minutes once a week.
“Only seeing them for that short time, we know physiologically we cannot affect their fitness,” he said. “All we can do is make them aware of activities that they can do to improve their fitness.”
During PE class, the students play with parachutes, do step aerobics and learn tumbling, among a variety of other activities Vickroy introduces to them.
“A lot of them they’re going to love, and some of them they are not going to want to do again,” he said. “But at least they get to experience them.”
The remaining 70 minutes of state-mandated weekly PE instruction are supposed to be taught by classroom teachers. But a frustrated Vickroy said this time tends to get squeezed out by other subjects, such as math and reading.
“The schools are so overwhelmed by trying to increase scores in other subject areas that usually it’s physical education that gets thrown by the wayside,” he said.
Because of the shortage of time devoted to PE, Vickroy created the Jump Rope Challenge to encourage students to exercise during recess. Fourth- and fifth-graders train to compete to jump two, five and eight minutes and win jump ropes and other prizes when they reach each benchmark.
“The kids have been so enthusiastic about it that they get to these challenges and say, ‘What’s next?'” Vickroy said.
In response, he created the Jump Rope Hall of Fame, which requires entrants to jump 15 minutes and complete 50 double-unders. In return, a certificate with their name is hung in their school’s multipurpose room.
Gilroy Unified School District also reinstated the Gilroy Run for Fitness in 2008 at Vickroy and other PE instructors’ urging, and nearly every public and private elementary, middle and high school is participating. Students earn points by training at school and at home for the event and are urged to adopt healthier eating habits in preparation.
“Teachers may not be doing quality physical education, but at least they’re taking the kids out to run and walk,” Vickroy said.
At the conclusion in the spring, the students participate in fun runs of up to three miles.
“For many students the Run for Fitness is the catalyst for establishing a lifestyle that includes regular physical activity and healthy eating,” said Lillian Castillo, a registered dietitian with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. “Many participants said they would continue to practice and eat healthy because they felt better doing so.”
Each year Vickroy rallies children, parents, businesses and community groups such as the Gilroy Parks and Recreation Department, YMCA and the county Public Health Department to support the run. More than 600 students participated last year.
Because of his work in the community, the South County Collaborative Nutrition and Health Committee awarded Vickroy its Nutrition and Health Award earlier this month.
“I serve on the GUSD School Wellness Council, and his name was constantly mentioned by educators and staff as someone who championed the relationship between health and academic achievement and for his approach to physical education that enhances the physical, social and emotional development of students,” Castillo said. “His students feel empowered by him and look forward to his physical education classes.”
Vickroy was honored to receive the recognition for his efforts to make Gilroy healthy. He is only the second person in the past eight years to receive the award. The first was GUSD Trustee Rhoda Bress.
An avid athlete himself, Vickroy practices what he teaches. He enjoys running with his golden retriever, cycling and playing tennis. His wife Tammy is a first-grade teacher at Eliot.
“If you have taught for as long as I have, you want to get out there and touch lives,” Vickroy said. “That’s the bottom line. It’s just things we have to do to get kids excited about movement and hope it will continue throughout a lifetime.”
