The Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD) is inviting Canadian schools to participate in the Jump2Bfit Across Canada National School Challenge on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006!

Jump2Bfit Across Canada, one of three challenges offered by CAHPERD this year as part of the National School Challenge Program, is designed to get Canadian children and youth moving through fun filled physical activity.

Working together, a class or group of students performs enough jumps to "travel" the distance from Victoria, B.C. to St. John’s, N.F - a cumulative distance of 7950 km! Each jump is equivalent to traveling 100 metres, and students must jump for a minimum of 30 minutes. The route travels through major cities and capitals across Canada, and is also a great way for teachers to incorporate some physical activity into geography lessons.

"With the current concern for the health and physical activity levels of Canadian children and youth, the need to promote the importance of daily physical activity and quality physical education programs to their healthy growth and development has become critical," says Garth Turtle, president of CAHPERD. "The National School Challenge Program has been successful in getting school children active and inspiring an ongoing commitment to active, healthy living in communities across Canada."

"Our goal this year is to have 300,000 students from across the country participate in our National School Challenge Program," says Vicky Bisson, CAHPERD Communication Manager. "To date, more than 160,000 students from 260 schools across Canada have signed up for our events. Many teachers have told us how much their students enjoy participating in our challenges, and they look forward to finding out what the next challenge will be each year."

This is the fifth annual National School Challenge program that CAHPERD has launched. In 2002, the Hokey Pokey challenge got over 270,000 kids dancing their way into the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s largest dance. In 2003, the Conga Across Canada challenge got 245,589 students doing the Conga together. In 2004, 253,000 Moved to the Moon by traveling 624,000 km through a variety of physical activities. Last year, 260,000 students ‘yelled tag, you’re it’ in the SpecTAGular National School Challenge, a massive game of tag.

This year’s line up includes three great events: MOGA Madness (Most Outrageous Group Activity), which took place on November 24th, Jump2Bfit on February 23rd, and back by popular demand, SpecTAGular taking place on May 25th.

The Canadian Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (CAHPERD) is a national, charitable, voluntary-sector organization with a primary concern to influence the healthy development of children and youth by advocating for quality health, physical education, and sport experiences.