Originally Printed in The Gillette News Record on 6/5/2011
By NATHAN PAYNE, NEWS RECORD CITY EDITOR

News Record Photo/Joy Lewis

Jara Soost takes advantage of a sunny, warm day to talk with her kids as they walk eight blocks to Sunflower Elementary School on Thursday morning. Issaac, 8, and Zoey, 6, walk with their mother when the weather allows.

Jara Soost knows that she is a role model to her kids whether or not they know it. That is why the personal trainer tries to lead an active lifestyle that includes walking her children to school when she can.

“The kids love it. They know that you are engaged in what they are doing,” she said. “Kids copy their parents all the time, whether we know it or not. If I don’t think it is important, they won’t think it is important either.”

Although the stroll from her home to Sunflower School with her children, Isaac, 8, and Zoey, 6, is only about eight blocks, each step counts toward a healthier lifestyle for her family.

It is that healthy lifestyle for the whole family that a new cooperation between the Campbell County School District, the City of Gillette and Campbell County hopes to promote through a new program funded by a school district recreation mill grant.

A step in the right direction

Soost tries to get 10,000 steps under her belt each day with a varying degree of success. And that is exactly what the new Gym 60 program is asking of the rest of the community.

Simply try to walk more.

“It is our hope that we can increase physical activity for the schools, but also in the community,” said Healthy Schools Coordinator Mike Miller. “This is a communitywide effort. If we can get adults modeling it, and encouraging it, it will hopefully encourage kids.”

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