On Tuesday, January 6, 2015 the Boys & Girls Club of Evansville will receive two grants totaling $6,500. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation is awarding $5,000 towards a Triple Play Program and $1,500 towards gameroom physical and recreational activities.
The grants help provide programming during out-of-school time that supports a healthy, active lifestyle. Boys & Girls Clubs around the state will receive a variety of grants to support Triple Play programming, focusing on being healthy holistically through the mind, body and soul.
“Many kids today are facing an uphill battle when it comes to eating right and understanding how to maintain healthy habits,†said Rob Hillman, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Indiana. “The Triple Play program and Boys & Girls Clubs are working to educate and help make healthy choices easier for kids. Through the program we are building a solid foundation of learning with activities that will help kids continue healthy habits and exercise into their adult lives.â€
“Healthy habits are learned at an early age, and that’s why we’re so committed to the Triple Play program,†said Kristen Metzger, who leads Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s Medicaid business unit. “This program is helping to build the foundation for a lifetime of healthy habits for kids across the country, including proper nutrition and increased physical activity.â€
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation is committed to improving health and strengthening Indiana communities. Through its Healthy Generations grant program, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation works to identify the issues most in need of attention and then directs its financial support and volunteer efforts toward improving health in those areas. Promoting youth health and active lifestyles is an ongoing focus of the foundation.
The Triple Play grants announced today are part of a five-year, $10 million commitment from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation’s parent company foundation to Boys & Girls Clubs of America to promote healthy lifestyles. This is the fourth consecutive year Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation has awarded Triple Play grants in Indiana.
About Triple Play
Triple Play: A healthy lifestyles Game Plan for the Mind, Body and Soul, was launched in 2005 by Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services and with support from The Coca-Cola Company. The goal of Triple Play is to encourage kids to eat healthier, become more physically active and increase their ability to engage in healthy relationships. A two-year study of more than 2,000 children ages 9-14 showed that Triple Play succeeded in getting them to exercise more, eat healthier foods and feel better about themselves. The study found that Triple Play kids increased to 90 percent of the federally recommended amount of daily exercise, which is 60 minutes a day for children, while their peers outside the program decreased to 78 percent. Triple Play includes five program components, each of which serves between 20,000 and 500,000 youth annually. Since its inception in 2005, Triple Play has made more than 9.2 million connections with kids across the country. In 2011, the WellPoint Foundation joined BGCA and Coca-Cola as a Triple Play sponsor. Learn more about the program at www.bgca.org/tripleplay.
About Boys & Girls Clubs of Evansville
The Boys & Girls Club of Evansville offers daily access to a broad range of programs designed to drive positive outcomes for youth and reinforce necessary life skills. With continued support from the Evansville community, the Boys & Girls Club will stay uniquely positioned to make a significance difference in the lives of youth.
Mission: To enable all youth, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.
About Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation
Through charitable grant making, the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation LLC, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, promotes Anthem’s inherent commitment to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield serves. The Foundation focuses its funding on strategic initiatives that address and provide innovative solutions to reduce the number of uninsured as well as organizations and nonprofit charities that promote the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative that targets specific disease states and medical conditions. These include: prenatal care in the first trimester, low birth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation. The Foundation also coordinates the company’s annual associate giving campaign and its parent foundation provides a 50 percent match of associates’ campaign pledges. ®ANTHEM is a registered trademark of Anthem Insurance Companies, Inc. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield names and symbols are registered marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. To learn more about the Foundation please visit www.wellpointfoundation.org.
