Educators attend Roughrider Health Promotion Conference

Several educators and community members from the local area learned how to promote school, community and personal healthy lifestyle concepts at the 26th annual Roughrider Health Promotion Conference held May 29 through June 1 in Medora, N.D. The conference theme was "Go Wild with Health."

West Fargo High Physical Education teachers Ryan Johnson, Doyle Plecity, Chelsea Hendricks, and Leah Swedberg were 4 of the 189 participants registered. Schools and communities from across the state sent representatives to evaluate their school health and community programs and to develop action plans for making improvements. Sessions were based on the components of Coordinated School Health including health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, counseling, psychological and social services, healthy school environment, health promotion for staff, and family/community involvement. Additional topics included substance use prevention, character education, violence/bullying prevention, chronic disease prevention and professional development.

The keynote presenters included Dr. John Hoover, on Bullying Research and Statistics and Rainalda Schaeffer-MSN RN, on "keeping the spirit of childhood alive."