Movement
Free PCR Passes for Trial Members
Members of the Qawalangin Tribe have free access to our local Parks, Culture, and Recreation (PCR) Center and Aquatics Center. Tribal members can sign in under "Qawalangin Tribe" and use these facilities to foster wellness on their own time.
Healthy Kids Program
In October 2019 we began development of the Healthy Kids Program because we heard from parents, teachers, and administrators that there was need for a movement based after school program. We worked with the Unalaska City School District (UCSD) to create the program, which is run by Tribe staff at the elementary school and includes a nutritious snack and a bus ride home. The Healthy Kids Program prevents obesity by providing access to physical activity for elementary students. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we have not run in-person sessions in the 2020-2021 school year. Instead, we continue to work with the UCSD and have adapted the program to foster movement without in-person programming. For example, to inspire socially distanced play, we painted the Eagle’s View playground with activity routes.
Kids play around the gym with Wellness staff.
Many students participated in Healthy Kids programming. Over half of the student body enrolled (92 students) and 51 students participated in in-person sessions before our schools shut down to in-person learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The entire student body of 164 students is served by the painted activity routes.
Building a movement-based program for elementary students has improved access to safe places for physical activity.
Future Directions
• We are working with the school board and community recreation center to broaden the scope of the Healthy Kids Program. We believe that by working together, we can create a “new normal” of highquality movement-based programming that will serve the community for years to come.
• We are collaborating with the UCSD and City of Unalaska to support construction of a pedestrian activated crosswalk (or similar) at the elementary school.
Wellness staff paints COVID-safe games on Eagle's View Elementary playground.
• We have partnered with the Museum of the Aleutians to construct “Walking through Time” signage that would encourage walking. We applied for a National Park Service Tribal Heritage Grant. Our application was not funded, but we continue our partnership with the museum, and we plan to apply again. We are also in the preliminary stages of visioning a wellness exhibit at the museum.
• We had great staff turnout for Walk to Work Wednesday, a program designed to encourage walking to work. Next summer we look forward to expanding this program to the broader community. We also plan to continue financial support of recreation center passes for the tribe.