Seventh-grade students at Greenbelt Middle School participated in a Redskins FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time & Type) Special Event on Tuesday, hosted by the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation.
FITT, a young health and wellness initiative that began during the 2016-17 school year, encourages a healthy lifestyle through conditioning sessions and by assisting children to develop personalized two-week fitness plans. Currently, the Redskins and the FITT program work together with 55 schools across four school districts in the Washington Metropolitan area, with Tuesday's gathering the first to occur in one of the public schools in Prince George's County.
Following a group-wide dynamic warm up, students engaged in various activities that centered around physical exercise. The stations included a speed and agility relay, slide tag, 4-star, a 20-yard dash and flag tag.
Among those in attendance was Redskins cornerback Danny Johnson, who joined the students in the action on Tuesday. For Johnson, events like these hold a lot of value.
"I have a son myself," he said. "Watching him run and around and play sports and stay in shape. I like to see the other kids do the same thing as well."
Meghan Higgenbotham, a physical education teacher at Greenbelt, agrees and recognized that the FITT program can set an important precedent in child development.
"If you start young, then [you will] follow it through life," Higgenbotham said. "I try to instill those same things into my students."
Of course, Tuesday's festivities provided a little more of an incentive to join in on the physical drills given Johnson's presence.
"They love [this event] and they look forward to it," Higgenbotham said. "Because they were sixth graders last year, they asked almost at the beginning of school [if] they could be a part of the program this year, so it was a surprise and they really enjoyed it."
"It's a great thing for us."
