300 students from elementary schools and middle schools throughout Los Angeles County came out to the 3rd Annual Lakers Fit For Life Health Fair on April 24th for an afternoon of nutrition lessons and fun exercise with the Laker Girls and Laker players. This health fair was part of Fit For Life with the Los Angeles Lakers presented by Anthem Blue Cross, an initiative aimed at educating the community about the importance of physical fitness and nutrition.
The centerpiece of Fit For Life with the Los Angeles Lakers is a website (https://www.nba.com/lakers/community/1112fitforlife.html) that provides all Lakers fans with fitness tips from Lakers players, Laker Girls and Lakers training staff, as well as healthy cooking recipes and nutrition advice from celebrity chef Nikki Shaw. To encourage local elementary school and middle school students to visit the site, the Lakers launched the Fit For Life Trivia Challenge. In the Fit For Life Trivia Challenge, students earned points for their school by correctly answering on-line trivia questions about health and wellness, based on content from the Fit For Life website. The Top 20 schools in the Fit For Life Trivia Challenge won an invitation for 15 students to attend the Lakers Fit For Life Health Fair.
Upon arriving at the Lakers Fit For Life Health Fair, each student received a Fit For Life with the Los Angeles Lakers t-shirt and a healthy lunch, consisting of turkey, lettuce and tomato sandwiches from Jersey Mike’s and organic bananas, clementines and Asian pears from Melissa’s World Variety Produce. After fueling their bodies, the students fueled their minds by hearing a presentation from celebrity Chef Nikki Shaw. Chef Nikki taught the students about the importance of eating healthy and making wise food choices. Next, it was the Laker Girls who got the students stretched and active by teaching them warm-up exercises and dance moves. Once the students were warmed-up, they were ready for the highlight of the afternoon: exercise stations with the Lakers players.
Pau Gasol, Jordan Hill, Darius Morris, Devin Ebanks and Player Development Coach Phil Handy all came out to the Health Fair to lead the students in exercise at the different stations of schoolyard games, including: trashcan basketball, limbo, and basketball cone drills. The students rotated from station to station, so each student had a chance to play in each game and to compete with the Lakers players. Each student was given a souvenir Anthem Blue Cross lunch bag, cookbook, Lakers sunglasses and left with memories of a fun afternoon and the tools to be fit for life.
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