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Displaying items by tag: fitness

Thursday, 28 February 2019 13:25

Saratoga Regional YMCA Kicks – Off Annual Fundraising Campaign

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Concluding the month of love and heart-healthy awareness, the Saratoga Regional YMCA (SRYMCA) kicks off this year’s “Be a Hero” campaign for their annual fundraiser.

The YMCA pre-school students welcomed attendees by singing the Barney and Friends theme song, “I love you.” This set the tone of the event, that emphasized how closely health, community, and love interconnect throughout Saratoga county’s YMCAs.

This year’s face of the “Be a Hero” campaign is Air Force veteran, Joe Miller. Miller was suffering from diabetes, losing his vision and his overall health was rapidly declining. During his six months stay at a Veteran’s shelter in Ballston Spa, he was referred to the YMCA’s financial assistance program.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), more than 100 million Americans have diabetes or prediabetes. Diabetes can lead to life-altering complications including kidney disease, heart disease, blindness, and strokes.

“A healthy lifestyle is your road map for managing diabetes, which is the key to preventing or delaying complications,” states CDC website.

Access to an affordable place to get on track with a healthy lifestyle made all the difference in Miller’s life.

“It (the SRYMCA) helps everybody. No matter who you are, no matter what your background is, your color, your creed, or where you come from this financial assistance program is there to help. You can’t beat that at all,” said Miller.

The YMCA pre-school, the pool and swim lessons and the LIVESTRONG program – which is designed to assist cancer survivors to improve their physical fitness – are just a few of the programs in addition to the financial assistance program that is funded by the annual campaign.

“We’re excited that we are able to provide the opportunity for the community not just to give to the Y, but really to give through the Y and make a difference,” said CEO Andrew Bobbit.

Sixty percent of the SRYMCA staff have donated to the fundraiser already. This year’s goal is to raise $400,000 to provide life-changing experiences that will better the community of Saratoga County.

Published in Sports

Thursday, 31 January 2019 10:40

A Week of Health and Wellness

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga County Chamber will kick off their 5th annual Health and Wellness week this Sunday, Feb.3.

To assist in achieving new year’s resolutions to become more active, participating fitness facilities will open their doors to the community. They will host workshops, training sessions and inform the community of all the people and services available to help them reach their health goals.

Modeled after the infamous “restaurant week,” the chamber’s health and wellness council introduced Health and Wellness week in 2014 to allow local fitness and health-related businesses and nonprofits to promote their health and wellness services.

The overall objective is “to encourage local people to try something new,” said Tom Shimkus, the Saratoga County Chamber President. Aside from the will to help guide the towns’ people to a fitter life, the Chamber has their own personal goal, “to make sure, through their (health businesses) efforts that Saratoga becomes one of the healthiest places to live and work,” said Shimkus.

According to the University of Wisconsin Population Institute’s annual county health ranking, Saratoga county was ranked #5 of healthiest counties in NY state when the health and wellness council began. In the years since Saratoga began their health and wellness week, they have moved up the ranks, even taking the number one spot one year. Saratoga Springs conveniently possesses natural healthy lifestyle traits including access to free spring water, it’s lake and state parks.

President Shimkus has one bit of advice for those attending this year’s Health and Wellness week, “invite a friend or family member or co-worker it increases the likelihood that you’re actually going to do it—and you help someone else out too.”

Published in Sports

Friday, 16 May 2014 10:41

Free School: NY State Offers Full-Ride Schoolarships To STEM-Focused Graduates

By Colette Linton

SARATOGA SPRINGS—Interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) studies have a strong history in the county with STEM fairs, courses and competitions.

Now the best and brightest high school students have the opportunity through the New York State STEM Incentive Program to receive a full ride to college for those pursuing high-tech careers.

Students who are in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class, who are also planning to major in a STEM field at SUNY or CUNY, and later work in a related STEM job in New York state for five years following college graduation, qualify for the program.

“This scholarship is a great reward for those students who chose to work incredibly hard in one of our many high school or Early College STEM pathways,” Dr. Joseph Greco, K-12 Director of Math, Science and Technology Integration at Saratoga Springs City School District wrote in an email to Saratoga TODAY.

However, he added, that students’ interest in STEM studies are planted and encouraged long before they reach high school.

Regarding whether he thought the scholarship will propel students into STEM fields and careers, he said: “At Saratoga, we believe that interest in STEM happens long before students even enter into the high school. While these incentives are a great reward for students who have taken on the challenge of a high school or Early College STEM pathway, it is our curriculum and instruction at the Primary and Intermediate grade levels that will have the greatest impact on interest in STEM.”

Saratoga Springs City School District’s Project Lead The Way (PLTW) engineering program has been taught at the high school since 1999 and was expanded to the middle school in 2000. Greco was hired in 2012 by the Board of Education to oversee the Math, Science and Technology Integration for the entire school district.

In addition, Greco wrote, that the school has added math coaches at the K-5 level, started Lego Robotics programs at different schools, started the Educating Young Engineers Saturday Program, extended the STEM Academy to the summer (through BOCES), and has recently competed in the middle and high school’s first VEX Robotics competition.

“Our rich STEM programing at the high school will continue to grow in 2014-2015 with the continued expansion of our PLTW Computer Engineering course offerings. Thanks to forward thinking leadership by the Board of Education and Superintendent Michael Piccirillo, Saratoga students have access to some of the most rigorous STEM programing that is offered in U.S. public education,” Greco said.

For one student anticipating her first semester of college in the fall, her story of STEM studies has resulted in a compromise of interests and began with a discovery.

In eighth grade, senior at Saratoga

Published in News

Thursday, 07 February 2013 13:27

Division Street Elementary Students Exhibit STEM Projects

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Division Street Elementary School students got to show off their latest science projects and experiments at the school’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Exposition February 4.

Published in News