The 1st Annual Gator Star Youth Motivation and Sports Clinic

Vital Stats

Andrew H

Gainesville, FL

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The Problem

Education: Inner city children too often grow up in an environment that downplays the importance of an education. This problem is exasperated in the city of Gainesville, where the high school graduation rate is well below the state average. To many of these children, a ticket out of poverty is not through education. Instead, it is through sports, music, or drugs that many children believe they can succeed. In some cases, these young men and women turn to drugs, gangs, and violence as an alternative. The Gainesville Sheriffs Office estimates that there are currently around 16 gangs within the city of Gainesville. Most of these gang members are between the ages of 14 and 18 years old. All this activity takes place just miles from the University of Florida, Florida’s flagship state university. Our community needs to come together to stress the importance of education and fight back against the allure of the streets. Child Obesity: Child obesity has become a major problem within our society. Twenty percent of children between the ages of 6-19 years old within the Unites States are obese. Unhealthy fast food and microwavable dinners have replaced fruits and vegetables at the dinner table resulting in many of the health problems our children currently face. As well, the technology era has played a large role in the inactivity of this generation. Instead of playing sports or engaging in other healthy physical activities, children are increasingly turning to video games and computers. It is important that we stress the importance of a balanced diet and physical activity. It will make a world of difference physically and psychologically within a child’s life.

Plan of Action

The 1st annual Gator Star Youth Motivation and Sports Clinic will be a one of a kind event within the Gainesville community. The clinic will be free and open to all children within the ages of 6 to 15 years of age. The clinic, facilitated by the University of Florida Freshman Leadership Council, will have three overarching goals. The first of these goals is to promote physical fitness and health amongst children within the Gainesville community. Two stations, each 20 minutes in length, will strive to promote this message. Child obesity has become a major problem within our society. Statistics show that almost 20 % of U.S. children between the ages of 6-19 years of age are obese. Within the first station, students will learn the importance of physical fitness and be presented with fitness tips by a University of Florida Human Health and Sciences professor. The second station will consist of a drug awareness seminar put on by the Gainesville Police Department. Secondly, the clinic will strive to reinforce the importance of education. Each year, millions of inner city children grow up believing success can only be achieved through sports, music, or entertainment. We will work to break down these and other preexisting stereotypes. The Freshman Leadership Council will work to find guest speakers for this portion of the clinic. The Freshman Leadership Council Student Conference point group will also give a presentation on how to stay academically successful. This portion of the event will be 45 minutes to an hour in length. Finally, sports can teach important life lessons and can be vital to a child’s level of physical fitness. We will have 45 minute stations to introduce the children to various sports including soccer, football, basketball, and baseball. Each child will be allowed to participate in 2 of the 4 stations throughout the day. At the stations, the children will be taught the fundamentals to success in each sport by members of the Freshman Leadership Council. We will also work to bring in University of Florida athletes to help us through this process (i.e. UF soccer players for soccer, UF baseball players for baseball.)
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Education
Physical and Mental Health

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