Drop the Pop School Winners Announced

YELLOWKNIFE (April 29, 2009) – Drop the Pop NWT School Award Winners have been announced for 2009. All 38 schools that took part in Drop the Pop are to be commended. There were many wonderful and worthy programs implemented this year.Congratulations to the following schools for the effort, creativity and partnerships evident in their programs this year.

The following schools were winners of the six categories (based on student population) and received between $1,000.00 and $2,000.00:

Kaw Tay Whee School – Dettah
Charles Tetcho School – Trout Lake
?ehtseo Ayha School – Deline
Ecole St. Joseph School – Yellowknife
Ecole St. Joseph Middle School – Yellowknife
Deninu School – Fort Resolution
Helen Kalvak Elihakvik School – Ulukhaktok
Joseph Burr Tyrrell School – Fort Smith
Weledeh Catholic School – Yellowknife

The following schools each received “honourable mention” awards of $500.00 or $750.00, based on population:

Kalemi Dene School – Yellowknife
Louis Norwegian School – Jean Marie River
Ecole JH Sissons – Yellowknife
Ecole Alain St. Cyr – Yellowknife

Here are just two highlights of how participating schools showed initiative in engaging students and communities in the 2009 Drop the Pop NWT Challenge:

• Students at Ecole St. Joseph’s School earned tokens by participating in daily physical activities, then were able to ‘spend’ those tokens on healthy snacks at a traveling “Tutti Fruit Stand,” run by student leadership groups.

• Charles Tetcho students ran a healthy choices restaurant on Friday, March 13, and had an ‘experimentation’ week of trying new healthy juices.

The Drop the Pop NWT Challenge is a Healthy Choices Initiative that raises awareness of how sugary beverages (like pop and other sweetened beverages) and low-nutrient foods negatively affect health and learning. Through Healthy Choices Initiatives such as Drop the Pop NWT, the Government of the Northwest Territories is working to ensure our children have the opportunity to develop the health knowledge, skills and behaviours they need for successful learning, work and play in daily life. Making healthy nutritional choices will lay a foundation for successful future.

Drop the Pop NWT is funded by the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative and is coordinated by the Government of the Northwest Territories, in partnership with the Northern Nutrition Association, Food First Foundation, Canadian Public Health Association/NWT Nunavut Branch, Health Canada, Northern Stores and Yellowknife Direct Charge CO-OP. The challenge also takes place in Nunavut and the Yukon.

For more information, contact:

Shawn McCann
Manager, Public Affairs
Education, Culture and Employment
Tel: (867) 920-6222

Damien Healy
Manager, Planning and Communications
Health and Social Services
Tel: (867) 920-8729