A Wellness-Filled Day in Decorah

Today I was a special guest in the Decorah Community School District. Decorah High School’s Health Life Skills Management Class planned and organized a school-wide Health Fair, which was a day-long event that included over fifteen breakout sessions on health-related topics featuring a wide array of speakers. I kicked off the day at 8 a.m. this morning as their opening speaker, and delivered a presentation I call “Extreme Makeover: YOU Edition.” I shared with all 600 high schoolers the incident that led to my passion for wellness, discussed the importance of nutrition and exercise, and finished by sharing six steps every student can take to transform their lives and give themselves an “extreme makeover” of sorts.



After speaking at the high school, I headed over to the elementary and visited every K-2 classroom to make a quick presentation about healthy eating and activity and gave each student a copy of the healthy snack cookbook I created, “Snacking Smart from A to Z.” They loved the book and were very inquisitive about my crown. So cute!


Later in the morning, I visited the entire middle school to lead another assembly. The kids were very attentive and shared lots of great statistics with me on fast food and school lunches, in addition to asking some thoughtful questions. I was very impressed with this group!

Finally, I trekked over to the 3rd and 4th grade wing of school to deliver more cookbooks. The students ate them right up! I talked with a couple of fourth grade classes while they were eating in the cafeteria, and the students were cheering so loudly and with such excitement that I wondered if they would ever quiet down! Boy, wouldn’t it be nice to hear that every day :)


What an honor it was to visit so many students – and at all grade levels – in one day. I handed out nearly 1000 healthy snack books in this one visit, and it makes me so excited for the job opportunity of Miss Iowa. There is no doubt in my mind that I am ready, and this program is so greatly needed in our state today.

Thanks for reading!
XOXO,
Jennifer