Partnerships Promote Healthy Competition
Optima Health Family Care and the Newport News
Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism have partnered to provide a program for 10 to 14 year olds that encourages Nutrition, Respect & Growth – NRG (pronounced energy). The first session of NRG is wrapping up at the Doris Miller Community Center, and over the course of this eight week program participants were exposed to recreation and fitness with an emphasis on health, nutrition, and community engagement. The program’s goal is to enhance emotional, educational, and social values as well as overall health while also promoting good character and sportsmanship.
The youth participated in educational sessions pertaining to nutrition and have been provided with techniques to understand the importance of food choices, how to identify basic food groups, learn about chronic diseases resulting
from unhealthy eating and recognize the difference between good and bad food choices for energy. Health education and awareness training encourages healthy lifestyles to battle obesity and problems associated with being overweight. Introduction to boxing was chosen as the sport for this first session of NRG. A non-contact approach to the sport of boxing with instruction from Otis Hooper of Peninsula Boxing Academy provided the youth, both male and female, with a sense of accomplishment while stressing the importance of fitness, coach ability, sportsmanship, respect and determination.
Building Better Futures, the City’s youth and gang violence prevention initiative, provided sessions on leadership and how to interact with and support law enforcement, and the Newport News Police Department participated with
the youth to establish better community relationships.
NRG concludes its inaugural session with a showcase of skills on December 10 at 1:30 PM at the Doris Miller Community Center. For more information about the program, contact the Newport News Parks, Recreation & Tourism’s Instructional Division at 757-926-1443.