Tuesday, September 10—Continued 12:50 p.m. 1:00-2:30 p. m. 1:30 p.m. 3:15 p. m. 3:30-5:15 p. m. 5:15 p.m. 6:30-8:30 p.m. 8:30 p.m. Transportation from Washington Hall to Hotel Final Summary Session-Weapons Room, Acad- Council Members Executive Director, President's Council on Chairman, President's Citizens Advisory Chairmen, Vice Chairmen, and Group Tour of West Point and Recreation Period Buses will leave the Hotel Thayer and visit Transportation from Hotel Thayer to Academy CONCLUDING GENERAL SESSION-Academy The ater Presiding Richard Nixon, Vice President of the United Reports of Group Chairmen General Discussion Benediction Very Rev. Msgr. Joseph P. Moore, Catholic Chaplain, United States Military Academy Transportation from Academy Theater to Hotel Thayer Social and Buffet Supper Vice President Nixon, Host, Garden Terrace, Adjournment First General Session Brief Council Progress Report Shane MacCarthy, Executive Director, President's Council Out of the Annapolis Conference on Fitness of American Youth came two major recommendations, viz: To have the National Government continue the alert on youth fitness and, secondly, that some mechanism be established to carry this awareness to all communities in the Nation. From the first recommendation came the President's Council on Youth Fitness. The second recommendation was the background for the establishment of the President's Citizens Advisory Committee. The Council concept became a reality when, in September 1956, an Executive Director was appointed. The support for our small staff is provided by contributions from the Council agencies. Our immediate task was to carry the interpretation of the Council responsibilities to all parts of the Nation. We attempted to arouse the interest of parents, teachers, community leaders, and all types of organizations to the need for recognizing the problem of subtle physical erosion in the midst of scientific and technological development. Every place where this story has been told, we have stressed the following points: 1. We must attain and maintain individual fitness while enjoying all the benefits of today. 2. The sedentary habits of our age, reflected in the attitudes and motivations of our modern youth, could result in softness. 3. Fitness begins in the homes and in the communities. Parents and other adults set the example. It is they who must set a climate of favorable public opinion. 4. The fitness we seek cannot be attained by the mere allocation of funds from a central source. Thus, we have stated with uniformity that the main purpose of the President's Council is to get each community so interested in the fitness of its own boys and girls that it will provide, on its own initiative, the facilities, design the programing, and give the human leadership essential to the conduct of a comprehensive, continuing, year-round fitness program. We are pleased to report that this message has met with most encouraging results. State governors have given their personal attention to this problem in a most conspicuous manner in California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Delaware, Rhode Island, Illinois, and West Virginia. In some of these States, formal Governors' Conferences on Youth Fitness have been convened. And others are now being planned for Nebraska, Utah, Vermont, Alabama, with indications that more States will follow. Mayors of many cities have established municipal youth fitness committees, while others are now in the planning stage. I recall in particular the actions of Kansas City, Mo.; Corpus Christi, Tex.; Detroit, Mich.; St. Louis, Mo.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Alexandria, Va.; Baltimore, Md.; Greenwich, Conn.; Wilmington, Del.; and Stroudsburg, Pa.—and with very special emphasis on the wonderful program in Flint, Mich. Numerous conventions throughout the past few months adopted "fitness” as the central theme for their meetings. National organizations and educational institutions have begun to form their own youth fitness commit tees. Many individuals have assumed a unique personal initiative in telling the fitness story. The reaction of the communications field has been highly favorable. Our story has been told and retold by the newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, and many trade publications. This report means that our primary goal to focus national attention on YOUTH FITNESS has met with sympathetic and widespread response. While the President's Council will continue to be an inspiring mechanism rather than an administering organization, we do hope that our efforts will spark the potential of the communities toward achieving concrete results. We are at the point where ideas must be translated into action. From this conference, therefore, should come well-conceived plans and suggestions on what communities can and must do now with present resources: a. to strengthen physical education in home and school, b. to provide safe opportunities and facilities for recreation, and c. to get the local adult leadership for youth fitness program planning and administration. This challenge can be met by the constant help of you-the members of the President's Citizens Advisory Committee. Realizing that we are not starting from scratch; that numerous and efficient youth-serving organizaions are already in being, we must concentrate, during the forthcoming year, on the formation by localities of their own youth fitness committees, which will have the prestige and authority to harness community resources. With spontaneity and determination to show results, some of these localities might well be designated "Pilot Projects for Youth Fitness," where fitness practices might be emphasized and demonstrated for others to follow. By utilizing local youth-fitness committees, and particularly the pilot projects, many ideas may take the form of positive action. Among others, these include: 1. Having every public school considered a community school. This would make school facilities available to youth and adults alike at all times. 2. Stressing fitness programs in all schools, especially the elementary schools. 3. Utilization of vast parking areas at night and weekends for recreational purposes. 4. Planned development and utilization of our Federal, State, and local parks for recreation. 5. Designating certain streets: a. on which children may walk, skate, or cycle to and from school, b. for recreational purposes during certain periods in home neighborhoods, and c. for weekend family usage. 6. Planning and constructing of safe bicycle pathways. 7. Getting proper focus on youth fitness needs in urban-renewal and suburban developments. All of these goals are based on the premise that adequate medical examinations have been conducted and that proper nutrition-the fuel for energy--has been provided. |