News Release                              For Immediate Release

                                                                                                                         June 18, 2007

Winners Announced for the Turn Off The Screens Week Challenge!

Fifty schools in Grey and Bruce participated in the fifth annual Turn Off The Screens Week challenge! The challenge encourages children to turn off the TV and computer and to get up and get moving.

Schools returning 50% or more of the completed log sheets received gift certificates for sports equipment from Wintergreen. The top five schools are: Kincardine Township–Tiverton Public School with 62%, St. Edmunds Public School with 57 %, Brant Township Central School with 55 %, Sullivan Community School with 52% and Alexandra Community School with 51%. The Ontario Early Years Centres received Fifth Anniversary Turn Off The Screens T-shirts for draws held at each centre.

“I played outside with my friends and went biking and roller blading,” said Hannah Weppler, first-prize winner drawn from the students who were screen-free from April 23-27. Her prize is a $150.00 gift certificate for sporting goods equipment. Hannah, from Arran -Tara Elementary School Public School, says participating in the Turn Off The Screens challenge was hard “It feels good that it is over.”

The other winners of $50 gift certificates for sporting goods equipment were: Kirkland Landry, Dufferin Elementary School; Rachel Blenkinsop, Keppel Sarawak Elementary School; Tara Wood, St. Anthony’s School and a student from Meaford Community School. Fifty other prizes of water bottles, t-shirts, frisbees and carabiners will be given out at assemblies in June. Each registered school received three Turn Off The Screens T-shirts for prizes in their schools.

Sixty-six teachers also took the challenge. Teachers Diann Lutz, Kay Fawcett, Ann Marie Barnes, A. Donivan and Shelly Moore won either a Suppertime Survival Cookbook, Manpo- Keii – The Art and A Science of Step Counting book or a pedometer.

Organized by Public Health, the Turn Off The Screens challenge is designed to get kids moving and to raise awareness of the amount of time they spend in front of the TV and computer. The Active Healthy Kids report card, released in May 2006, shows more than half of Canadian children watch two to four hours of television daily and approximately a third are spending two or more hours on leisure–related computer use. The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that screen time in children –use of television and computer combined – be limited to no more than two hours per day and only one hour per day for preschoolers. Children who watch TV more than two hours per day are more likely to be overweight and obese.

For further information call Public Health at 519-376-9420 or visit our web site at www.publichealthgreybruce.on.ca.

-30-

For more information:

Betty Perkins R.N. B.Sc.N

Public Health Nurse

Grey Bruce Health Unit

519-881-1920 ext. 239

bperkins@publichealthgreybruce.on.ca