Teachers step into character to get Claremont students to eat healthfully

When C. Renee Seay, also known as "Dr. C," walks into Claremont Immersion Elementary School's cafeteria, the kids go wild.

"I have whole-wheat bread," a girl in pink shouted last week at a Dr. C appearance. "I've got carrots," another girl piped up. "I've got applesauce," one boy bellowed over her.

Moments later, with Dr. C gone, Kyrah Smith, 9, began explaining to her classmates why broccoli is one of her favorite foods. "I like them raw or hot," the fourth-grader said as she dunked a helping of the vegetable into ranch sauce.

So, what could have kids so excited about fruits and vegetables? A comprehensive approach that has taken years to implement and dozens of school officials to maintain is responsible.

"It's been difficult, but I've liked it because I've been able to keep it going," Seay said of the campaign she created with another teacher in 2006 to raise nutritional awareness at the Arlington County school. "You get people on board with fresh ideas. You have to have some type of gimmick that kids will buy into."

Three years ago, Seay, who teaches physical education, and Alicia Boniakowski, then a Claremont music instructor, set out to create such a gimmick as part of their course work for master of education degrees from George Mason University.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) visited Claremont Elementary on Oct. 21 to present the school with a gold award in the Governor's Nutrition and Physical Activity Award Program. According to the state's Web site, the award recognizes schools with the "best practices that promote healthy lifestyles while combating childhood obesity, hypertension, and other preventable diseases." About a dozen of Virginia's nearly 2,000 schools have received the distinction since 2005.

In fall 2006, Seay and Boniakowski, who now teaches at Triangle Elementary School, created Dr. C and Dr. B, characters who appeared regularly with nutritional tips on Claremont's morning announcements. The characters dressed in white lab coats, sunglasses and straw hats topped with plastic fruits and vegetables. Eat whole grain, drink skim milk and exercise, Dr. C and Dr. B advised the school's more than 500 students.

The pair visited the cafeteria as often as once a week looking for students who ate healthfully. By the end of the fall, students looked forward to showing off what they were eating.

Commercials dubbed "Destruction of the Couch Potato" and "What's in Your Fridge?" played throughout the school and starred Dr. C and Dr. B alongside Claremont students. The characters became launching pads for dozens of programs that have created a school culture aimed at changing the way Claremont students think about health.

In April 2007, Seay and others founded a nutritional council made up of parents, teachers and students who meet as often as once a week to discuss implementing health initiatives. That year, the school also hosted a healthy rap show, a schoolwide musical about eating healthfully, and began an annual poster contest on the issue. Over the next two years, the school founded running clubs, hosted a health fair and implemented a suggestion box for kids to share what they liked to eat.

Claremont provides 30 more minutes of daily activity for students than the county requires, an Arlington public schools spokesman said. Each morning and before lunch, Claremont students go to recess. Two or three times a week, students attend a 45-minute physical education class.