The Heart Foundation's iconic 'Jump Rope For Heart' – Taura Peke mo te Manawa Ora programme is a leading physical activity fundraiser enjoyed by Schools and Early Childhood Education Centres (ECE) nationwide.
The Vodafone Warriors teamed up with the The Heart Foundation through the club's sponsor Konica Minolta. Konica Minolta has a strong heritage in the education market and is also the official supporting partner of Jump Rope For Heart, so facilitating the visit was logical say General Manager of Marketing, Josh Byers. "Its great to be able to bring our partners together to be able to promote healthy living and exercise within school".
It's a widely celebrated programme now in its 29th year which develops lifelong, fundamental co-ordination skills in a fun and exciting way as well as encouraging children to lead a heart healthy lifestyle and support an important charity.
Signing up to the 'Jump Rope For Heart' programme is free and children are encouraged to participate in a 'personal skipping challenge', which includes a sponsor-driven fundraising component called the 'Skip-a-thon challenge'.
'Jump Rope For Heart' Co-ordinator Shabana Stuart says many schools are striving to grow existing heart healthy initiatives within their school and this is great news.
"More and more schools are choosing to make healthy lifestyle education a priority and to teach children from an early age about the importance of physical activity. This is important as it means that we're helping to ensure that Kiwi kids are heart healthy and won't have heart disease," she said.
Since the programme began in 1985, more than 2.4 million Kiwi kids have learnt how to skip, keep active, and most importantly, love their hearts through skipping. The popular curriculum linked programme is available to all ECE, Primary and Intermediate schools Nationwide.