WJCC Receives $1M Grant For Fitness Equipment

By Amber Lester Kennedy Friday, October 29, 2010

Williamsburg-James City County students will soon be exercising on brand new fitness equipment at no cost to school division.

The Carole M. White Physical Education Program, a federal grant program, has awarded a grant that will total about $1 million over the next three years for new workout equipment for all the schools in the division. The schools will receive weights, cardiovascular fitness equipment and new curriculum materials in the coming three years.

WJCC Athletic Coordinator Jeannie Trainum applied for the grant; the division was one of 77 chosen out of 480 applicants to receive funding. The purpose of the grant is “to build a coordinated project, ‘District PEP Project,’ that expands and enhances the district physical education program so all students can meet the goals of the Virginia Standards of Learning, School Health Index and the nutrition and physical activity school board policies.”

In the first year, WJCC will receive more than $547,000 to purchase physical fitness equipment, as well as curriculum materials and staff training, according to Trainum. In the second year, more than $362,000 will go toward upgrading the high schools’ and middle schools’ cardiovascular training equipment, including stationary bicycles, stair-step exercisers and rowing machines.