Menu
Community Trail will improve learning for NMS students
Nevada Daily Mail
Karen Marquardt, from Healthy Nevada, told the Nevada Rotary Club Thursday that research she has been following shows there is a positive correlation between exercise and improved learning for students.
"A 20 minute walk improves brain activity, making it easier to learn and process information," Marquardt said.
This has been implemented for Nevada students in kindergarten through the fifth grade, who in 2014 walked 2,250 miles per week before school.
This program has not been implemented at the middle school because there is no good place for the students to walk.
"The middle school is surrounded by streets and the parking lot is being used by buses before school," she said.
Benton and Bryan have fenced playgrounds where students walk before school and Truman is able to use the track next door.
So at present the 600 plus middle school students spend their time before classes start sitting in the gym or the lobby visiting or using their phones or computer, she said.
What the middle school does have is nine acres of land in back of the school that can be developed to be conducive to exercise.
Marquardt said that last fall Healthy Nevada worked with PedNet in Columbia, which develops walking trails, to design a Community Trail at the middle school that will be available for community use outside of school hours and during daylight hours -- the same as the track at the high school.
She said the R-5 School District agreed to let Healthy Nevada develop the trail, which will be "gifted" to the school district when it is completed.
All of the cost of developing and building the trail will be covered by Healthy Nevada, and when completed it will be gifted to the school district, which will maintain the trail.
Marquardt said the eight-foot wide, half mile long concrete trail that is being planned is estimated to cost $180,000, with an $80,000 grant from the Moss Trust covering half of the cost.
"We're working to match that," she said.
She said they have received several donations already, but are just starting the fundraising program, with the hope of having the trail finished by the start of school in the fall.
She said Heartland Behavioral Health Services will have 55 people who will utilize the trail daily and the Nevada Public Library is considering using it during the summer with its summer reading program to teach about health issues while children are reading while walking around the trail. Medicalodge has also indicated an interest in using the trail.
"My own seventh grader promotes the trail at school every day," Marquardt said.
There are also several stroller walking groups interested in using the trail, which will provide a better surface to push a stroller than the walking and running trails around Walton and Radio Springs lakes.
With the concrete surface and eight-foot width it will be ADA accessible.
In response to a question, Marquardt said there is an interest in extending the trail to Walton Park.
In addition to the walking trail for exercise, it provide a walking trail for exercise, the project will provide a safe way for middle school students to walk from the school to the performing arts center, Testman Track or the football field.
"This is a community project," she said.
For more information contact Karen Marquardt at 417-283-3100, or Karen.marquardt@healthynevada.net.