Label Reading 101

i-tri continues to thrive and grow because of the amazing generosity of our local community!  Last night was the first of four family nutrition/cooking sessions.  Last year Wellness Foundation of East Hampton sponsored our nutrition education component taught by their Executive Director, Jennifer Taylor.  Although these sessions were fantastic, the timing (during lunch) wasn't the greatest and because the information was not making it home to mom & dad (who ultimately make the food purchases) the girls did not seem to make any significant changes in their food choices.   This year we wanted to try something different- what if.. we brought the girls and their families together and did some hands on nutrition education and cooking together AND what if... we filmed the classes and put them on youtube and our local TV station LTV...  Of course that was the DREAM and from that vision came the miracles that made last night possible.  The East Hampton High School offered us their state of the art Family/Consumer Science room, complete with brand-new Viking stoves, two former Springs alumna along with film teacher Jeremy Quitko are filming and editing the series into a "cooking show" and will arrange for it to be shown on LTV and on youtube,  the Wellness Foundation has again generously sponsored Jennifer Taylor to create and teach the program and Cirillo's Market IGA in Amagansett is DONATING ALL OF THE FOOD!!!  Not to mention the fact that 23 busy, hard-working families made the effort and came and filled the room with eager smiles!  I love when a DREAM comes TRUE!!!

I AM...

Today we worked with two of the MOST POWERFUL WORDS in the English language  I AM.  After a mini run on the actual triathlon course, the i-tri girls walked down to the waters' edge at Maidstone Park where they were instructed to choose a long stick, find their own patch of sand and fill in the blank, I AM ________.  They each took their time to think about their POWER WORD and then, using their stick, wrote the word in the sand and then decorated each letter with shells or rocks. 

A really BIG Check!

i-tri was the recipient of a $10,000 grant from the Women's Sports Foundation- GoGirlGo! The Women's Sports Foundation founded in 1974 by tennis super-star Billie Jean King, builds on her legacy as a champion athlete, advocate of social justice and agent of change. The Women's Sports Foundation strives for gender equity and fights discrimination in sports.  i-tri is excited to be incorporating the GoGirlGo!  Curriculum into our program this year!

how bright is your LIGHT?

This week we compared self-esteem to the light of a lantern.  When we were born, each of us came into this world as a very bright light- bringing joy to all, as we grew up, we started comparing ourselves to others and began to judge and criticize ourselves or listen to the criticisms of others- this dimmed our lights.  Today we used the light of a lantern to demonstrate how unkind words or actions can dim our lights but ALSO to show how you can make your light SHINE BRIGHTLY by thinking and speaking kindly to yourself, being proud of yourself, doing acts of kindness & generosity.



Rosie Orlando, CPT leading us in Zumba!

 After-school we experienced another wonderful way to activate that BRIGHT LIGHT- through exercise, laughter and time spent with friends!    Rosie Orlando, Fitness Director at the East Hampton YMCA RECenter led us in a fast-paced workout that combined both circuit training and Zumba.

Evals

In order to gauge the success of the i-tri program, the girls undergo a series of evaluations at the start of the program which are repeated again at the end.  Over the past two weeks the girls completed fitness evaluations, including a VO2 Max test, shuttle runs and a timed half mile run along with a swim evaluation and medical evaluations which were done compliments of Dr Alex Aponte & his staff at the Ed & Phyllis Davis Wellness Institute at Southampton Hospital.  Based on the extraordinary results of last years' pilot program, we expect the girls to show dramatic increases in their overall fitness levels and positive changes to their overall health, such as lowered blood pressure and an increase in muscle mass.  It is important and interesting to note that their is NO EXPECTATION for any of the girls to loose weight as a result of participating in i-tri- in fact, based on the results of last year, we completly expect ALL of the girls to actually GAIN weight, as a result of the tremendous growth (height) that happens during adolescence as well as the healthy addition of body fat that girls naturally put on during puberty.