Portland Middle School one of 18 schools winning Michigan School Wellness Awards

In June, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recognized 50 Michigan schools for fostering healthy eating, physical activity habits and tobacco-free lifestyles; 18 of the award winning schools use the Project Healthy Schools (PHS) program. Fifty percent of the Gold award winners use PHS. These schools started PHS as part of the Building Healthy Communities partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and MDHHS.

The Michigan School Wellness Award program is a collaboration with the Michigan Department of Education; the United Dairy Industry of Michigan; Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan; Michigan Action for Healthy Kids; and the Healthy Kids, Healthy Michigan Coalition.

The program aims to engage schools statewide in creating healthy school environments by establishing school wellness teams, completing the State of Michigan’s Healthy School Action Tools and implementing sustainable policy and environmental changes. Schools that have achieved all of these elements are recognized with the top-level Gold award.

The winning PHS schools include:

Gold Award

• Allendale Middle School, Allendale

• Cherryland Middle School, Elk Rapids

• Ishpeming Middle/High School, Ishpeming

• John D. Pierce Middle School, Waterford

• MacDonald Middle School, East Lansing

• Portland Middle School, Portland

• Summit Academy North High School, Romulus

• White Pine Middle School, Saginaw

Silver Award

• Almont Middle School, Almont

• Creekside Intermediate School, Dexter

• DeWitt Middle School, DeWitt

• Grass Lake Middle School, Grass Lake

• Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy, Detroit

• Thunder Bay Junior High School, Alpena

• Vista Charter Academy, Wyoming

Bronze Award

• Bentley Middle School, Burton

• Pittsford Middle/High School, Pittsfield

• St. Charles Borromeo Catholic School, Coldwater

Congratulations to the administrators, wellness champions, and wellness teams at the above schools.

This is an announcement from Project Healthy Schools. Image courtesy of projecthealthyschools.org