Norfolk, Va.—Norfolk State University will host Healthy Spartan Wellness Day from noon to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 22 at the New Student Center, located on the NSU campus. The Wellness Day event is part of the university’s ongoing Healthy Spartan Fitness Initiative, a campus-wide program designed to address the obesity epidemic and the decrease in physical fitness across the Norfolk State University campus community. The event is open to students, faculty, staff and the local community near NSU.

The Healthy Spartan Wellness Day will offer opportunities for exercise, healthy food, prizes, gifts, and fun. Activities include 10 minute exercise stations featuring a boot camp, Tae Kwon Do, yoga, and line dancing. Vendors will also conduct health screenings, distribute educational literature, and provide nutrition tips.

In spring 2005, the university developed a task force of representatives from the academic and administrative areas throughout the campus to address the obesity threat. According to Dr. John Anderson, director of the Spartan Health Center, “NSU’s approach is based on the recognition that being overweight and having poor physical fitness are conditions of lifestyle and poor eating habits that can only be changed when an individual makes a significant and life enhancing lifestyle change.” Using this premise, the task force developed a highly participatory action plan that includes public awareness, education, health promotion, and prevention and outreach activities intended to bring about a greater understanding of the impact of obesity and impaired physical fitness along with specific measures to address the problems.

For more information about the Healthy Spartan Wellness Day, call the Office of Communications and Marketing at 823-8373.

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