Wendy Cooper taught physical education in the Greece Central School District for 30 years. During the last five years of her public school teaching career Cooper developed a conceptual health and fitness program for students using traffic metaphors to teach health and safety. She named the program the “Healthy Highway.” Cooper found students easily connected with the ideas and themes of transportation which grew into thinking about the body as an automobile and how the fuel that is put into the body has a direct result on the performance. In 2014 Cooper officially launched the “Healthy Highway” program.
According to www.healthy-highway.com, “Healthy Highway’s programs help families get on the fast track to healthy choices.Healthy Highway uses traffic based concepts as a comparative for developing and practicing a healthy lifestyle for children and the entire family. The award-winning program’s “Rules of the Road” addresses healthy eating, the importance of exercise, self-esteem, positive thinking, the importance of listening to what your body is telling you, and much more. It’s all incorporated into a variety of activities that quickly becomes second nature.”
Several school districts around Rochester adopted the “Healthy Highway” program into their curriculum, it was also adopted by local community organizations as part of their health initiative. In 2015 the Greece Police Department became involved with the Healthy Highway through the Greece Central School District. Officers visited elementary schools during lunch time, served lunch to students, ate lunch with students and even led them in exercise programs. A closer relationship between police and students and the adoption of healthier habits by students, school staff and police officers was the result.
Four years ago Cooper created the “Healthy Highway Family Edition” which places focus on the health of the entire family. “Students were taking ideas home from school and sharing them with their families. I felt the program should be expanded to include the entire family with a focus on the family kitchen as a learning lab,” Cooper said.
The Family Edition is based on Healthy Highway core concepts, with a focus on fueling the future, setting goals and objectives and developing individualized family plans. “The Family Edition gives parents ways to talk to their families, and how to make the kitchen the showcase room. There are educational tools with guidance on establishing a foundation for family health. The goal is to empower the entire family,” Cooper said.
The school edition of the “Healthy Highway” program is available to individual teachers to incorporate into their classrooms. “The program is designed to be used in an existing curriculum, it isn’t in addition to, it incorporates materials that can be worked into math, language and health programs,” Cooper said. She works closely with teachers including guidance and support with incorporating the program into curriculum.
This July, Wendy Cooper will be receiving an award from the National Association of County and City Health Officials in recognition of her “Healthy Highway” work with the Oswego County Health Department. The award is called “Promising Practice.” The recognition states, “The designation of your program as a Promising Practice means that it demonstrates exemplary and replicable qualities in response to a local public health need. Your program reflects a strong local health department role, collaboration, and innovation.”
Three years ago Oswego County Health Department officials contacted Cooper and requested a “Healthy Highway” training workshop for two of their elementary schools. Over the first year, data was collected and the results showed an increase in knowledge of healthy food and a change in behavior, students were significantly choosing and eating more healthy options. The program’s success resulted in a recent initiative that brought the Healthy Highway program to all 24 Oswego County elementary schools, the Oswego Health Department and Oswego Hospital. Physical education teachers in all the elementary schools and workers in the hospital and health department were trained in the concepts of the Healthy Highway. Data from the program initiative is currently being collected and analyzed, initial results are outstanding.
Regarding family health during this pandemic Cooper’s advice is, “Watch what you eat, Watch what you read and Watch who and what you are spending your time with. Make sure it is high performance fuel that you are filling your engine up with.”
Cooper has a Healthy Highway Calendar called The Family Road Map. Each day of the month includes a healthful suggestion for the day. The calendar includes directions that instructs families on setting goals and making lists for the month. Daily healthy suggestions include, Walk for 10 minutes today, Choose two veggies for snack and Drink Water all day. Email Wendy Cooper wcooper@healthy-highway.com for a free download of the Healthy Highway Calendar.
The Healthy Highway way of life is an attainable goal, building healthy choices and a healthful way of life. The Healthy Highway Pledge is, “I promise to make ONE healthy choice every day.”
For more information on the “Healthy Highway” Program visit www.healthy-highway.com.
