Project Fit America Founder’s Welcome

About two years ago we held a meeting with our All Star Teachers who had been selected to become our In-Field Trainers.  We were getting ready to launch a state-wide program in Mississippi and wanted our team of Field Trainers to meet one another and to map out our launch.  These teachers are some of the best teachers in the country who have been hand picked to travel to the next generation of schools getting grants for the PFA program.  They will mentor the new teachers; train them in programming and most of all lead by example, as they have created highly successful programs in their own schools.  At the end of the meeting we went around the table and asked each teacher…”What does it mean to be a part of Project Fit America?”…it boiled down to three simple words…Hope. Validation. Collaboration.

Hope for the PE profession.

That an organization, such as ours, seeks to serve the front line PE Teacher exclusively and works day and night to listen, adapt, champion, trouble shoot, spotlight, and engage teachers in every far-flung region of this country.  That we seek out those teachers who are driven and full of passion to reach every student and find a way to motivate and challenge and change their lives.  The kind of teacher who knows loves to teach and would do for free…heck some practically are with the budget cuts taking place in the country.  These are teachers who are getting kids fit, who are changing student’s lives, who are a big part of the solution to the obesity epidemic in this country.  These are teachers that a kid will remember for the rest of their lives.  These are the teachers that a parent will stop at the grocery store, or in the parking lot of the school and say “Thank you, for what you are doing for my child.”

Validation.

Working alone, often overlooked, always the first on the budget chopping block. These are not “rock star” teachers who have awards draped around their gyms, or enough letters behind their names that it looks like alphabet soup.  These are teachers that are most likely right down the street from you, in a gym or playing field near by.   They are doing the job not for glory or recognition of others…they are doing it for the kids.  The schools that are awarded grants from PFA earn these grants because they have a PE Teacher(s) that are  going to get their kids fit against all odds.  We not only validate the commitment we reward it with funding and support.  To us they are the reason Project Fit America gets out of bed and marches to the office every day full of passion, commitment and enthusiasm to raise funds and help bring support to PE program across this great nation.

Collaboration.

When we pull up to a new school getting this program and spend the day on site with the PE Teacher and their students we have the privilege of learning first hand about their teaching environment and all that it entails.   This is not a day about showing lesson plans and touring the PFA curriculum…yes we definitely do that…but it a time where hopes, dreams, frustrations and good old fashioned “let’s roll up our sleeves and work together” comes about to see how we can create the most optimal fitness forward programming together.  Remember when you were a kid and you got together with your friends and everyone brought over their crayons and you dumped them all out of the box?   Even though everyone had the same colors in each box, somehow seeing all those crayons piled high together made everyone excited certain you were going to create a grand picture…and you did…

It was a masterpiece of creativity and endless possibilities…the collaboration!  Everyday we dump our crayons out of the box and collaborate with teachers and schools.  It is the heart and soul of who we are.

Hope. Validation. Collaboration.

Welcome to Project Fit America!