20 Guest Street
Boston, MA 02135
the
voice
Spring 2012
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Children’s Hospital Receives
Impactful Grant from New Balance
The New Balance Foundation recently granted the Children’s Hospital of Boston $7
million to establish the New Balance Foundation Center for Childhood Obesity
Prevention, Children’s Hospital Boston. The Center will address the growing
epidemic of childhood obesity, focusing on the root of the problem and future
preventative tactics.
Children’s Hospital Boston is a leader in the prevention and treatment of childhood
obesity. In November 2011, the Center hosted its first educational symposium for a
skilled team of doctors, researchers and nutritionists addressing the latest USDA’s
dietary guidelines. The new guidelines are visually communicated through a new
MyPlate icon which replaces the 19-year-old food pyramid icon. MyPlate is an
easier tool for delivering USDA’s dietary recommendations, which includes things
like an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat-free or low-fat milk. The
panelists explained the reasoning behind the USDA guidelines, the key elements
of the MyPlate message and suggestions for implementing MyPlate in clinical,
community and home settings.
The Center achieved many accomplishements in the areas of research, treatment
and dissemination in its first year. The Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) Clinic
treated significantly more patients and made key investments in staff, physical
activity interventions and enhanced services, such as transportation, to remove the
barriers to treatment. The Center also launched a website which delivers expertise
and resources to patients and families, clinicians and researchers and community
members. Learn more at: childrenshospital.org/newbalancefoundationcenter.
“The event was a huge success, especially with the attendee Sam Kass, assistant chef to
the White House and also a senior policy adviser for healthy foods initiatives,” said Megan
Bloch, charitable programs manager. “Support from the New Balance Foundation grant will
go toward the application of “MyPlate” at Children’s Hospital Boston.”
Central Catholic: Changing
One Student’s Life at a Time
Central Catholic High School is an exemplary, college preparatory high school founded in
Lawrence in 1935 to educate immigrants and the children of immigrants. The School has
continued to evolve throughout its history, adding facilities and programs while staying true to
the founding mission to provide an opportunity to those who need it most. Funding the mission,
which requires significant financial aid and scholarship assistance, has been an uphill battle.
Today, Central Catholic enrolls approximately 1,340 students from diverse backgrounds and
more than 40 cities and towns in northeastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.
Nearly 200 students are residents of Lawrence, with approximately half coming from families
that fall below the federal poverty guidelines. Central Catholic has a strong partnership with
the Lawrence Boys & Girls Club and seeks to admit 10 to 12 students from the Club each year.
The New Balance Foundation views Central Catholic as an educational anchor in the
community and wanted to help guarantee access to quality education for Lawrence youth. A
$250,000 gift from NBF endowed a “New Balance Foundation Scholarship” in perpetuity
for a Lawrence Boys & Girls Club member. A New Balance Foundation Scholar will be
named every four years.
The New Balance Foundation Scholar is chosen by Central Catholic and is based on the
strength of application and recommendation from the Boys & Girls Club. The scholarship is
not solely based on academics or sports, but rather on qualities consistent with New Balance,
like leadership, teamwork, passion and commitment.
Yeraldo Rodriquez, son of Damaris Rodriguez of Lawrence, was named the first recipient of the
New Balance Foundation Scholarship at Central Catholic and is currently halfway through his
freshman year. The partnership between the New Balance Foundation and Central Catholic will
continue to provide excellent opportunities to many deserving students and their families in the
years to come.
“Endowing a scholarship for deserving Lawrence youth provides incredible opportunities
for academic achievement and personal growth,” said Molly Santry, charitable programs
manager. “We hope every NB Foundation scholar thrives at Central Catholic, attends college,
achieves personal success and ultimately gives back to their home community of Lawrence.”
One Small House, One Large
Helping Hand: A Trip to Tijuana
New Balance Boston Associate, Amy Cheung, partnered with One Small House
to help a family in need. One Small House is a non-profit organization that builds
houses for families suffering from extreme poverty in countries such as Mexico and
Haiti. Amy became involved with One Small House through a friend, and without
much hesitation, she and 12 other volunteers decided to travel to Tijuana, Mexico,
with the organization. The group needed to raise $13,000 for the project and
cover trip expenses. With help from donations, including those from New Balance
colleagues and New Balance’s Dollars for Doers program, Amy successfully raised
her portion for the trip.
While in Tijuana, Amy met the family which benefited from the newly-constructed
home. The Montana family consisted of five adults and two small children. Despite
the language barrier, the connections between the family, the locals and the
volunteers were strong, and everyone showed patience and thanks for one another.
“It was disheartening to be exposed to some of the living conditions the families
in Tijuana were faced with every day, such as lack of plumbing and running water,”
Amy said. “We take for granted the simple things such as soap and clean water that
some people never have access to.”
The house was built in record speed, taking less than a week for Amy and the other
volunteers to complete. It was clear the Montana family was extremely grateful for
the volunteers’ work.
“Amy’s involvement with One Small House is a great example of how associates can use
corporate match, Dollars for Doers and Personal Volunteer Time benefits to increase their
impact on organizations and causes important to them,” said Molly Santry, charitable programs
manager. “We encourage everyone to take advantage of these generous NB benefits.”
Playworks Reshapes Recess
Ready, Set, Play! Recess, a time for students to take a break from the books and
enjoy being active, aids their overall health and well being, and Playworks is helping
kids grow at this important time. Playworks, The New Balance Foundation’s
most recent national partner, is a program designed to reconstruct the idea of
schools’ recess and transform it into a way for children to play and also develop
leadership and teambuilding skills along with staying healthy, positive and active.
Playworks serves more than 120,000 children in 300 low-income schools in 22
cities throughout the country every day.
“Playworks in the City of Boston has had a huge impact on children at school with
the implementation of their productive play along with providing leadership and
teambuilding training,” said Megan Bloch, charitable programs manager. “The work
that Playworks does focuses on five key areas: recess time, leadership development,
class game time, interscholastic/developmental sports leagues and out-of-school
time programs. Playworks has provided major improvements at these schools.”
Bullying incidents at recess have declined greatly along with a measureable increase
in students’ ability to focus during class activities. The New Balance Foundation
chose Playworks to begin a New Balance Foundation national sponsorship and
granted them $1.2 million throughout two years to continue to work toward helping
children become healthy and to keep kids moving.
“Playworks is a great obesity prevention partner for New Balance because of their
commitment to helping each child achieve the recommended 60 minutes of daily
movement. We see the school day as an opportunity to impact all kids through active and
healthy play,” said Molly Santry, charitable program manager.
Moving Through Maine
Continuing its commitment to move Maine, The New Balance Foundation is
supporting a variety of community and school-based initiatives, all designed to help
children and families lead healthy and active lifestyles.
Let’s Go 5-2-1-0 is an organization named after the numbers signifying five or
more fruits and vegetables, two or less hours of recreational screen time, one hour
of physical exercise and lastly zero sugar and sweets. The New Balance Foundation
is donating an annual grant of $200,000 to support 5-2-1-0 in NB communities
of Norridgewock, Skowhegan and Norway. The statewide initiative’s main goal is
to encourage healthy lifestyle messaging to local residents in six different sectors:
schools, afterschool, early childhood, healthcare, workplace and community.
Also moving Maine forward is Healthy Oxford Hills in Norway, a healthcare
alliance that provides services and education to the community. The organization is
geared to helping children becoming active at schools through physical education in
an effort to fight childhood obesity.
With a grant from the New Balance Foundation, Healthy Oxford Hills is able
to continue their mission of promoting healthy life choices for children. They
established gardening programs in schools to allow kids to work hands on with
healthy foods. Children naturally begin to want to eat what they actually took the
time to grow. Also, the grant is able to provide funding to allow physical education
coordinators to work with the schools to implement exercise and movement activities
into the children’s school day.
More NBF Maine Movement Grants Include:
• Move More Kids
• NBF Ice Hut in Norway
• Healthy Kid Pack
• WinterKids
• Walking School Bus
• Waterville YMCA and Boys & Girls Club
“The initiatives will effectively help Healthy Oxford Hills to move more kids and families
in Maine,” said Megan Bloch, charitable programs manager. “The New Balance Foundation
recognized the potential of this organization and gave an annual gift of $60,000 to support
its efforts.”