Eastern Illinois University Athletics

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KANSAS, Ill.  — Eastern Illinois mascot Billy the Panther teamed with Butch Lockley a former final four contestant on “Survivor: The Amazon,” to help unveil the kickoff of the Project Fit America program at the Kansas School. Both joined with a group of elementary school students in demonstrating how to use the school’s new outdoor fitness center.

Project Fit America is a national public charity dedicated to helping schools create and improve opportunities for their students to be active, healthy and fit. Kansas School’s Project Fit America program is funded by a grant from Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System.

Matt White, manager of SBL’s Healthy Communities, said Kansas is the pilot for Project Fit America programs that the health system hopes to help start at other schools. He said SBL wants to help the approximately 9,000 children in its service area who are classified as overweight.

White said Project Fit America provides outdoor and indoor fitness equipment as well as fitness curriculum for physical education and other classes. He said the goal is for children to get outdoors more and be more physically active.

“No child left inside. That is what we want to focus on,” White said. The health system also sponsored a health fair Wednesday at the school.

Superintendent Chris Long thanked SBL for supporting the Project Fit America program at Kansas School, estimating it is a $20,000 project. He also thanked bookkeeper Leigh Ann Heltsley for writing the grant and custodian Earl Scott for installing the outdoor fitness center.

Physical education teacher Brenda Coffey received specialized training in using the outdoor fitness center that she has been passing on to students and other staff. She said the fitness equipment helps with strength, flexibility, agility and cardiovascular health.

Coffey comically put Lockley, her physical education teacher at Olney, through his paces Wednesday on the fitness equipment.

She ordered, “Hands on your stomach, hands on your stomach!” as Lockley did leg lifts and counted his second pull up as “one and three-quarters.”

The students and Billy the Panther cheered Lockley and his young competitors as they used the fitness center. Lockley also got the crowd cheering as he landed on the baseball field in an Air Evac Lifeteam helicopter.

Other students took part in the kickoff by presenting SBL President Gary Barnett with a framed magazine cover celebrating the health system’s sponsorship of Project Fit America at Kansas School.