Santa Fe Center Catches Onto the CATCH Program

The Santa Fe Center of New Providence has become part of the CATCH Program, geared toward children. For 25 years, CATCH - which stands for "Coordinated Approach to Child Health" - has been the #1 health promotion and childhood obesity prevention program in the country.

The Junior League of Summit helped the Santa Fe Center obtain the program, the Center said in their newsletter.

"...the goal of improving the health of our children through education and planned gross motor activities" is why the Center so cherishes the CATCH Program.

They were given approximately $2,000 of gym equipment to augment the activities suggested by the CATCH Program.

The curriculum guides — workbook and printed cards — takes the teacher and children through a variety of activities designed to help “catch” the enthusiasm of our children and to nurture their love of movement.

This vision is accomplished through:

• Offering a wide variety of movement experiences and opportunities
• Providing children a safe place to be themselves and develop skills at their own pace
• Promoting physical development by giving children opportunities to practice and refine their motor skills
• Developing fitness by engaging children in moderate to vigorous physical activity.

In addition to actively moving, children will be actively learning about good nutrition and how to stay healthy with a good diet by identifying the GO and WHOA foods which are identified as such:

• GO foods are nutritious and give energy, while
• WHOA foods are not nutritious and will slow people down.

Activities and lessons are provided to teach to accomplish these goals.

For more information on the program, call Jane or Cindy at the Santa Fe Center at 908-464-3848.