Huddersfield Giants Continue to Champion Change4life
Published on: 11th January 2012
Over 150 junior rugby league players from across Kirklees joined the Huddersfield Giants in the Community initiative to inspire the next generation of rugby league players to lead healthy lifestyles.
Huddersfield Giants introduced Junior Rugby Health Workshops to their winter development programme building on the ideas of the national change4life programme which aims to encourage children and families to eat well, move more and live longer.
Hosted at The Zone, the players aged from 7 – 11 years discussed topics such as healthy eating and staying active through an interactive health presentation. Every child was also invited into the Shokk Gym at The Zone for a free fun session.
Supported by NHS Kirklees and the council as part of the Change4life Kirklees project, every young player received a unique Huddersfield Giants Healthy Log Book which includes the key change4life messages, such as being active for 60 minutes, swapping sugary foods for healthier choices and eating “me size” meals.
Big G and Huddersfield Giants squad members joined each of the X sessions to help spread the messages and create a positive impact.
Huddersfield Giants favourite, Eorl Crabtree attended one evening session. He said, ‘These evenings provided a fantastic opportunity to inform and engage local children in healthy lifestyle choices in a fun and memorable way. It was pleasing to see how much influence, we as players can have with the children. By using sport to bring the children together the team have been able to get across some really important messages around health. ’
Newsome Panthers Community Club Ambassador, Dimitris Spiliotis, attended with the Newsome Panthers Juniors. He commented the sessions were ‘Brilliant! Inspiring and educational. The children loved it!’
The programme was successful due to the efforts of the Huddersfield Community Club Ambassadors and Coaches.
Participating clubs included Newsome Panthers, St Josephs, Emley, Underbank Rangers, Meltham All Blacks, Lindley Swifts and Moldgreen.
The attached photographs show members of Newsome Panthers Juniors attending the first session. With Billy Denton, Billy Haywood (middle), Henry Barton and Thomas Spiliotis working on their Healthy Log Books.
For more information on Huddersfield Giants in the Community and how to get involved visit www.giantsrl.com or contact community@giantsrl.com.
