As summer temperatures climb higher with each passing day, young people attending Boys and Girls Club activities at the Calistoga Elementary School are learning to cope — by choosing not to drink soda and Kool-Aid, if given a choice. Instead they’re learning to become smooth operators when it comes to healthy living by picking nutritious snacks over other junk.

“They’re learning to rethink what they drink,” said Nutrition Education Coordinator for the Calistoga Joint Unified School District Joanne Bruno. “We are focusing on a program called Power Plays, which places emphasis on picking nutritious food over other things, and getting lots of exercise. It’s part of an overall healthy living program, and the kids seem to love it.”

Which is no surprise, since anything that has to do with food is a big draw for the kids any time of year, Bruno said.

On Tuesdays for the last two weeks the kids — some were students involved with summer school — but most were involved with activities at the Boys and Girls Club, turned out in groups of 10 for six or so classes each day, to learn to turn ordinary fruits and veggies into delightful treats that provide proper nutrition and, more importantly in the waxing dog days of summer, a potent energy boost.

In only two Tuesdays, the kids got their routine down pat.

Step one, wash hands. After that, get belly up to the workstation with the big mirror and pick a fruit.

There were bananas, mangoes, crushed pineapple, cups of milk and yogurt, knives and potato peelers, and place mats for everyone, and everyone was excited.

The younger students, or in this case, would be chefs, would get the less challenging fruits to prepare. Suzanna Tovar, 6, immediately got busy slicing a banana, as her big sister, Lucia, who’s 10, waited for her turn at picking an ingredient. Others around the gaily-decorated work area got busy dismembering mangoes. Unsweetened crushed pineapples were measured, as was plain yogurt.

Everyone knows you can never have enough yummy vanilla, so Ana Mendoza quietly added an additional teaspoon.

Room 14, shared with the GATE class during the normal school year, was a no refined sugar zone, so the kids were safe.

Oh yeah. Don’t forget the ice. In fact, one of the kids said the ice should be added first since the cubes were hardest to crush.

Once each of the 10-member crew added his or her ingredient to one of the two blenders everyone stood slightly back while the oldest kids held the tops down and the younger chefs pressed the blend button.

Whirrrrrrrrrrr! Whirrrrr! Whirrrr!

“It’s really neat, so loud,” said Brenden Olson, who once dressed as a cigarette at the first Calistoga Relay For Life event in 2004. “It’s cool to make all this stuff, and to get to help the littler kids. We can all use good nutrition and this class is a neat way to get kids to learn.”

Once the piles of fruit and ice were blended to the proper consistency, the room — filled with 10 vibrant children who initially sounded like a coop of young chickens with their cackling — became uncharacteristically quiet.

That’s because they suddenly had their mouths full.

The only sound heard for about 30 seconds was the varied “mmmmms,” as the tasty concoctions slid down welcoming gullets, sending a cold chill rippling through their midsections. Smiles increased exponentially, getting larger, expressing lasting satisfaction.

“Oh that was so, so good,” said Katiana Smith, her tongue whipping around in a circular motion to lap up a mustache the color of Christmas eggnog.

Not all about eating

Research has repeatedly shown that kids tend to gain weight more than twice as fast during summer as they do during the regular school year, according to a 2007 report in the American Journal of Public Health, so the Power Plays program, which is funded by the Champions for Change program network for a Healthy California, also incorporates a variety of activities including everything from playing games of tag, to basketball, to going swimming at the new Calistoga Community Pool to hiking and jumping rope.

“Once the new school year picks up, in mid-August, we plan to take our nutrition and exercise programs district-wide,” Bruno said. “In the past we’ve only included K-6 grade students, but now we’ll include K-12, so all of our students can begin choosing good eating and exercise habits.”

To kick off the new nutrition and exercise awareness in the school district, Bruno said she and her students will have an informational booth set up at the back to school barbecue to be held at Berry Field, beside the Calistoga Elementary School, on Aug. 21 in the afternoon. The barbecue, which is sponsored by the Calistoga Family Center, is a free fun night for the entire community, where residents and moms and dads of school age kids can find out all kinds of information from nutrition programs, to education and training. Lots of community organizations will be there to inform the community of available services.

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