Top Business Leaders Gather to Honor NFL Foundation’s Impact on Youth Fitness

NFL PLAY 60 FITNESSGRAM PROJECT 11 YEARS WORKING TOGETHER TO IMPROVE STUDENT HEALTH AND FITNESS

As childhood obesity rates continue to rise, the NFL Foundation rises to the top as one of the few organizations willing to tackle the problem on a large scale. The Cooper Institute honored the NFL Foundation at the 2019 Legacy Award Dinner for the widespread impact of NFL PLAY 60 programs to improve youth health and fitness.

The annual event is the premier fundraiser for The Cooper Institute, founded by Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper nearly 50 years ago to prove through scientific research that exercise is the best preventive medicine.

Charlotte Jones, Dallas Cowboys Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer; NFL Foundation, Chairman

Charlotte Jones, Dallas Cowboys Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer, serves as chairman of the NFL Foundation and accepted the award on its behalf.

It’s all about prevention,” said Jones at the 2019 Legacy Award Dinner. “Our goal is to harness enthusiasm and passion and shoulder with institutions that are truly making an impact in the community.

The annual event is the premier fundraiserfor The Cooper Institute, founded byDr. Kenneth H. Cooper nearly 50 years ago toprove through scientific research that exercise isthe best preventive medicine.

This year’s event raised a record-breaking $740,000 to support research and education.

Executive chairs Arthur Blank and Roger Staubach are thankful for all of the support for this year’s event.

It’s phenomenal to be able to prove how exercise and fitness can help you live longer and more productively,” said Staubach, a long-time member of the board of trustees and the 2016 Legacy award recipient.

Roger Staubach Legacy Award Dinner Executive Chair

I want to encourage everybody to consider how they can get more involved in their own school districts and governments to use FitnessGram,” said Blank who was last year’s Legacy award recipient for helping transform youth health and fitness in his home state of Georgia.

Arthur M. Blank Legacy Award Dinner Executive Chair

A LEGACY OF SUCCESS

Since 2012, Georgia students have been leading healthier, more active lives thanks to empowering evidence-based programs such as the NFL PLAY 60 and FitnessGram by The Cooper Institute.

Arthur M. Blank, Atlanta Falcons owner and long-time board trustee for The Cooper Institute, helped facilitate powerful strategic alliances with partners such as the Department of Public Health, Georgia Department of Education, Georgia SHAPE, and the Atlanta Falcons to make FitnessGram the statewide youth fitness assessment in Georgia public schools.

Young people need to spend time being active for physical and mental health,” said Blank at the 2019 Legacy Award Dinner in Dallas.

The combined efforts have helped to reduce childhood obesity and improve the health and wellness of youth across the state.

Georgia now boasts a 5% overall decline in childhood obesity and the largest decline in childhood obesity among low-income preschoolers.

SAVE THE DATE: NOVEMBER 5, 2020

Honoring The Cooper Institute Founder & Chairman Emeritus KENNETH H. COOPER, MD, MPH

Executive Chairs: Ray and Nancy Ann Hunt

INSPIRING KIDS TO PLAY

In Texas and across the nation, advocates like Blank and Jones are helping raise awareness about the impact of youth fitness. By improving fitness and building healthy habits at a young age, students can grow up to be healthier, more productive adults.

NFL PLAY 60 is the only school-based youth fitness program proven effective through research using FitnessGram by The Cooper Institute, the most widely-used youth fitness assessment and software tool in the country.

“Greater participation in school-based fitness programs like NFL PLAY 60 can improve the health of American children, and FitnessGram can measure that growth along the way.

We want to inspire young kids to do the right thing, to be active, to be motivated by playing,” said Jones. “All we are doing is telling them to play!

The next Legacy Award Dinner will honor Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the “Father of Aerobics” and the founder of The Cooper Institute. The event will be held Nov. 5, 2020.

For sponsorship information, please contact Amy Johnson at 214-543-6533 or visit cooperinstitute.org/legacyaward.

Angie Blank, Arthur M. Blank, Jerry Jones, Kenneth H. Cooper

Lyda Hill, Bobbie Sue Williams

Stan Richards, Carol Murphy, Charlotte Jones

Kenneth H. Cooper, Betsy Price, Barclay Berdan

2020 Well.Hero. Award: Mayor Betsy Price

“It’s not about being thin, it’s about being healthy,” said Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price at the 2019 Legacy Award Dinner where she accepted the Well.Hero. Award for inspiring an entire city to get active and healthy.

Fort Worth is now the largest city in the U.S. to join the Blue Zone Project, a strategic partnership backed by Texas Health Resources that helps make healthy choices the easy choice.

The city has moved up from the 185th least healthy city to the 31st healthiest city.

In Fort Worth ISD, over 20,000 students using FitnessGram who are at-risk for diabetes have shown a 6% reduction in their risk factors for diabetes in just 3 years.

As a nation, a city and a state, we still have a lot of work to do,” said Mayor Price. “We can make people’s lives better.