Women’s professional golf icon Annika Sorenstam announced that the ANNIKA Foundation will partner with School Specialty’s SPARK Programs to help educate America’s youth about the benefits of physical fitness and proper nutrition. The ANNIKA Foundation, a non-profit foundation prides itself on a mission to teach children the importance of living a healthy, active lifestyle, selected SPARK as a fitness and nutrition curriculum partner because of its proven, research-based success at positively affecting fitness and influencing healthy behaviors among pre-kindergarten through 12th grade children.
“As with golf, the best way to achieve a healthy lifestyle is to develop good habits and routines at a young age,” Sorenstam said. “My passion for health and fitness started when I was a kid, so through my foundation I want to promote those healthy lifestyle choices to today’s youth. I am delighted that my foundation has partnered with SPARK, which will provide immediate opportunity to impact kids in our nation’s schools. We believe that by reaching directly into the schools we can instill good health and nutrition habits in our youth, and those habits will lead to a lifetime of benefits.”
There are four major content areas offered by SPARK: physical education, after school, early childhood and coordinated school health. More that 45 research publications have validated SPARK’s effectiveness and it is the only National Institutes of Health-researched program that has been determined to positively affect youth activity levels, fitness, sport skills, enjoyment and academic achievement.
