January 2009 winner

(Submitted by Sarah Kimmel)

I would like to nominate my sister Amy Roskelley, who is passionate about children’s health issues.

Amy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Community Health from Brigham Young University.  Right away she began working for the department of Health as a counselor to state employees about health issues.

As she got married and began to have kids, she started counseling only one day a week, so she could stay home with her kids.  Her devotion to her children and family, matched with her desire to be healthy came together when she started a small business she named “Super Healthy Kids”.  Super Healthy Kids is devoted to teaching parents about feeding their kids better, and getting active as a family.  She offers classes, recipes, products, lesson plans, ideas, and other things to empower parents to get their families healthier.

As her three children have all entered elementary school now, she wanted to do more to help the community at large in the fight against childhood obesity.  Her work with the Utah State Health department introduced to her the State funded program, “Gold Medal Schools”.  Her elementary school was not participating, so Amy took the initiative to start the program as a volunteer with the school.  Among programs new to the school is the Gold Medal Mile, which encourages kids to walk or run laps for incentives and prizes.  One teacher commented to her, “We are so happy with the Gold Medal mile! The kids finally have something to do during recess rather than fighting!”  Exercise has been proven to help kids learn and think better in school, and other schools have seen test scores go up due to the Gold Medal Mile!

Being a mother of 3, the Stake Primary president, helping with local health fairs, still working one day a week for the Health Department, Gold Medal School rep for her school, managing a small business, and most importantly keeping her own family healthy is enough to keep anyone busy.  She says the most important work she does is to model good healthy behavior to her kids by taking them hiking, biking, and rollerblading. She says the hardest thing she does is cooking healthy meals each night and encouraging her children to love fruits and vegetables and to make them the main focus of their diet.

Amy is a great example to me and helps me to want to teach my own kids how to be healthier and happier.