By 2030, if the trend continues, West Virginia’s adult obesity rate will tip the scales at 60%.
The above was observed and chronicled in a recent “State of Obesity Report” by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
In a place where food deserts rule and it sometimes just isn’t a meal unless it’s batter-fried and served in a take-out container, that’s a pretty telling statistic, Elizabeth Oppe said.
Because West Virginia’s youngsters — the likes of which have been known to lounge in front of their gaming systems for hours as they vanquish one computer-generated foe after the other — will at least be in the doorway of their late teens seven years from now.
As much as Oppe appreciates the research of the above foundation, there’s no reason, the WVU public relations professor says, that the Mountain State section in its report couldn’t be excised all together.
You excise, she said, by exercising.
You get fit, she said, when you get moving.
“Get Moving!” is the name of the nonprofit she founded in 2014.
She’s a fitness enthusiast, and her organization blends that with her other natural inclination for cause marketing, which is the practice of using PR to make a meaningful difference, rather than repair a tattered image or a product or entity in trouble.
Oppe launched Get Moving! in 2014, the year after former WVU football star and NFL stalwart Geno Smith reported to his first pro training camp with the New York Jets.
She had an idea for a sports-themed event that was about football, baseball and other sports.
Mainly, she said, it’s about initiating fun-fitness activities all the time — and not just during second-period gym class.
Smith came back for her camp, and other sports stars, including Quincy Wilson and Rasheed Marshall also have, over the years. Wilson and Marshall, in fact, are on the organization’s board of directors.
It’s not too early to sign up your kid for the 2023 edition of her camp, which will be from 9-11:30 a.m. March 18 at the WVU Athletics’ Caperton Indoor Practice Facility.
Admission is free for children ages 4-12. Visit https://www.getmovingwv.org/ to register.
Be ready for some marquee names from the WVU sports world to be there, too, said the professor, who happily gets to redefine that definition of star-power every year.
The standouts for her, she said, are the youngsters who romp through the exercises and games with gusto.
Them, plus the students from across her classes at WVU, who line up to be volunteers.
“There is a certain type of student who wants to work with the community,” she said.
Students who are about the soul of West Virginia, the professor continued, and not just what’s on the course syllabus.
“You can teach them how to write and do public relations,” Oppe said.
“But you can’t teach heart. They just have to have that.”
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