The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation, UnitedHealthcare and CBS EcoMedia today wrapped up the first stop of the second annual Team8 Tour, hosting a Nutrition & Fitness Day at Frederick Douglass High School. The event was part of a two-day volunteer effort that helped address the community’s need for healthier food options and urban agriculture in a food desert and included activities such as rebuilding the school’s community garden and fitness facility, and group cooking lessons and fitness activities for students.
The Team8 Tour is a national campaign aimed at encouraging young people across the country to make healthy choices, build character and learn critical life lessons that will inspire them to be catalysts for positive and social change. In 2016, its inaugural year, the Team8 Tour with help from hundreds of volunteers, reached more than 10,000 students and families in support of 18 local community organizations. Additionally, over $100,000 worth of fitness gear was donated to promote healthy and active lifestyles.
Yesterday, volunteers worked to refurbish Frederick Douglass High School’s community garden and fitness facility, and made various upgrades throughout the school in preparation for today’s Nutrition & Fitness Day.
Earlier today, volunteers invited students from Frederick Douglass High School to participate in the Nutrition & Fitness Day to reinforce the importance of healthy choices and staying active. Activities from the day included group cooking lessons for students led by Revolution Foods, and various fitness stations. Throughout the day, volunteers assembled several new grills. The Team8 Tour concluded the day’s activities with a community tailgate where all participants were invited to enjoy food harvested from the school’s community garden and cook using the newly installed grills.
The Nutrition & Fitness Day was made possible thanks to the generous contributions from The Home Depot Foundation, Aaron’s and BSN Sports.
“Making healthy choices, whether it is staying active or eating well, is a crucial factor in a child’s development,” said Steve Salem, president of the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to come together and make a positive and lasting impression for underserved youth in Baltimore. We’re so thankful to have like-minded partners who understand the importance of inspiring our youth to become the best version of themselves.”
”The Nutrition & Fitness Day in Baltimore was a great way to kick off the second annual Team8 Tour and an opportunity to inspire young people to take charge of their health and make a difference in their communities,” said Christopher Mullins, CEO, Mid-Atlantic Region of UnitedHealthcare.
Following today’s stop in Baltimore, the Team8 Tour will visit Immokalee, Fla.; Greensboro and High Point, N.C.; Bronx, N.Y.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Dallas, Texas; and Jersey City, N.J.
The Team8 Tour is part of UnitedHealthcare’s “Do Good. Live Well.” volunteer initiative aimed at decreasing hunger and obesity, inspiring service and encouraging volunteerism. Volunteers from the Ripken Foundation, UnitedHealthcare and CBS EcoMedia will participate in Team8 Tour events and provide physical enhancements to athletic-related facilities in each city.
About the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation (CRSF)
For the last 16 years, the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation has worked tirelessly to implement youth development programs that directly address the problems facing at-risk youth in distressed circumstances across the country. Inspired by one of the most iconic baseball families, the Ripken’s created the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation to honor the legacy of its family patriarch, longtime coach, and mentor, Cal Ripken, Sr. The Ripken Foundation uses sports-themed programs to bring police officers, youth partners and underserved kids ages 8 to 14 together on a level playing field to learn invaluable life skills.
In addition, the Ripken Foundation’s Youth Development Park Initiative creates clean, safe places for kids to play on multi-purpose, synthetic surface fields that promote healthy living in an outdoor recreational facility. In just six years, the Ripken Foundation has created 62 completed parks across the country in 19 states, impacting over 239,000 kids annually. In 2016, the Ripken Foundation impacted over 1.2 million kids nationwide through its Youth Development Parks and mentor programs.
About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with 1 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter.
About CBS EcoMedia Inc.
EcoMedia was founded in 2002 by social entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto. The company's mission is to harness the power of the advertising dollar to make tangible, quality of life improvements in communities nationwide. In 2010, after successfully partnering on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia was acquired by CBS Corporation, exponentially scaling its reach across television, radio, interactive, and publishing media.
Through EcoMedia's patent-pending EcoAd, as well as EducationAd, WellnessAd, Viewers to Volunteers and Volunteering with the Stars advertising programs, national brands and local businesses provide millions of dollars in financial support to some of the nation's most effective nonprofit organizations, funding critical veterans’, education, health and wellness, and environmental projects nationwide.
EcoMedia's innovative and proprietary business model has fundamentally altered the advertising and nonprofit landscapes, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change.
EcoMedia has earned numerous awards and recognitions for its work, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors Award for Excellence in Public Private Partnerships (2009), Edison Awards for Social Innovation and Social Impact (2012, 2013), and the Starlight Children's Foundation's “General H. Norman Schwarzkopf Leadership Award,” which honors individual and organizational leaders who are doing extraordinary work to advance the common good and strengthen their communities. Please visit ecomediacbs.com, like us at Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
By participating in EcoMedia's EcoAd, WellnessAd, EducationAd, and Viewers to Volunteers advertising programs, EcoMedia's advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities. EcoMedia's advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.
