Elementary School is Selected as NPS’ Most Active School

[Newark, NJ - June 22, 2018] Abington Avenue Elementary School was recently celebrated as “Newark’s Most Active School,” in the annual Activity Works Program. The school is the recipient of a $1,000 cash prize to improve the health and wellness of students at their school. Activity Works is the classroom-based program that combines physical activity and core curricula content to get students up and moving each day is being sponsored by Novo Nordisk and the Devils Care Foundation.

“On behalf of the principals, administrators and students of our 10 participating schools, thank you for bringing Activity Works to Newark Public Schools,” said A. Robert Gregory, Interim Superintendent of Newark Public Schools. “I want to thank our partners, particularly the Prudential Center, who continue to support the many programs and services of Newark school children.

Activity Works (activityworks.com), an interactive on-demand physical activity video series for K-4 classrooms designed to reduce childhood obesity, is now available to hundreds of more classrooms in Philadelphia, Newark and Trenton thanks to a new three year grant from Novo Nordisk, a global leader in diabetes care. With new classroom activations having begun in January 2018, Activity Works is already on track to be implemented in approximately 500 classrooms in these new markets, with aspirations to grow to more than 1,500 active classrooms by year three. Since its inception, the annual goal of Activity Works has been to empower as many children and families through physically-based wellness curricula and programming.

Tom Sullivan, CEO of Activity Works said, “We are so proud of the students at Abington Avenue for their contagious energy and joyful performances today. It is easy to see why they were the winners of Newark’s Most Active School Contest. Newark Public Schools should also be proud because their participating schools achieved over 93 million steps since February and led the way among participating districts including Philadelphia and Trenton.”

“We believe in programs that grow the mind and body of our next generation” said Jim Leonard, executive director of the Devils Care Foundation. “The partnership we have with Activity Works and the Newark Public Schools does just that, and we are proud to be involved in such a worthwhile endeavor” said Jim Leonard, Senior Vice President, Government Relations, of the Prudential Center.

During Newark's Most Active School contest (February 1, 2018 - April 30, 2018), Abington Avenue Elementary alone achieved:

• 185,000 Minutes of Physical Activity
• 645,000 Calories Burned
• 15.4 Million Steps

Abington Avenue School Principal Nelson Ruiz said, “Thank you to the students, teachers and our sponsors for all they have done to improve the health and wellness of our students.”