Author Archives: Mrinalini Prasanna

Hello from Active Teens! Today is the last day for Andy and me, which is very sad, but we both definitely plan on staying involved in the future! We’re excited to share that the new name for Active Teens is going to be Bull City Fit. This week has been our first week at the new Edison Johnson facility, and we had great turnout the last two days. It’s really rewarding to see especially after all the planning we put into the new space.

In other news, we submitted a grant proposal to add fitness equipment to the playground at Edison Johnson. Right now, the playground only appeals to kids 8 and under, and the parents and older siblings frequently just sit on the benches and watch the younger kids play. Adding fitness equipment such as uneven bars and sit up benches would definitely help keep the older visitors to the playground engaged. The grant winner will be decided by voting, so we would definitely appreciate it if you could take a couple seconds to vote for us! (You can vote once per email address or facebook account).

Link to vote for us: http://kaboom.maker.good.is/projects/bullcityfit

Mrinalini and Andy

I realize that Andy and I haven’t talked a lot about what we’ve been doing at Active Teens over the last couple of weeks, so here’s an update on that. The Active Teens program recently signed its contact to move into Edison Johnson Recreation Center—the negotiations for this took over a year, so it’s very exciting that the move is finally underway! Our current facility only has a weight room, a cardio room, and a small outdoor field, but the new facility will have in addition, a community garden, a kitchen, a dance room, and access to the swimming pool and various sports fields. We plan on expanding the timing of the program from 3 days a week to 6 and including nutrition lessons, cooking classes, and gardening events in addition to the physical fitness events we already offer.

Andy and I have been busy helping out with the logistics of the move. Recently, we partnered with 20 Physical Therapy students to reclaim the garden—removing all of the grass, building a new fence, and planting vegetables. We’ve also been setting up our new cardio room and stocking up the storage closet with lots of equipment and potential prizes (like a signed men’s basketball poster!).

We’re also working on designing an incentive system for the Healthy Lifestyles program (which Active Teens is one component of) to help increase retention of patients for all 6 visits. The problem is that since the visits are only once a month, we want to find a way to reward the teens for healthy behaviors more frequently, and more immediately. Right now, we’re thinking of giving the parent a roll of tickets to hand out to their kids when they observe healthy behaviors. The challenge of this of course, is standardizing how the parents hand out tickets across the different patients. We have a couple of ideas on how to fix this, which we’re presenting tomorrow to the Healthy Lifestyles team.

In other news, Duke Active Teens is trying to rename its program to reflect an expanded age group (2-18 years), the variety of activities offered (physical activity and nutrition), and the new partnership with Durham Parks and Recreation. So far, fellow DukeEngager Lexy’s suggestion of Bull City Fit is in the lead! Active Teens is offering a $50 Nike gift card to the winning suggestion, so definitely let us know if you have any ideas!

 -Mrinalini and Andy