WOODLAND HILLS : Grant to Aid Physical Education Program

Woodland Hills Elementary School has received a $20,634 grant from a Woodland Hills-based health-maintenance organization to purchase state-of-the-art physical fitness equipment.

The grant, from CareAmerica Health Plans, will be used to purchase permanent outdoor equipment and develop a cardiovascular fitness and wellness curriculum, the company said.

“We are very grateful to CareAmerica for recognizing that suburban schools like ours are often underfunded,” said school Principal Bonnie Bishop-Moren.

The money will allow the fiscally strapped school to update its physical education program, Bishop-Moren said. “We all realize that physical education must be more than games.”

The new equipment and programs are scheduled to be in place this fall, CareAmerica officials said.

The grant follows a $9,500 donation to the school last December from CareAmerica to develop fitness testing, teacher training, fitness programs tailored to individual grades, exercise equipment and support programs.

The latest grant will go toward purchasing additional equipment such as an outdoor aluminum and steel total motion facility with seven workout stations, including vault bars, horizontal ladders, pole climb, step-test station and sit-up station, company officials said.

CareAmerica is concerned about the high incidence of heart disease among children, company officials said.

“About 40% of American children 5 to 8 years old already exhibit one or more of the risk factors of heart disease, such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure or low cardiovascular endurance,” said Dr. Arthur M. Southam, CareAmerica’s president and chief executive officer.