Wareham sixth grader fuels up on fitness knowledge over summer
Wareham sixth grader Indiana Troupe was on the move this summer.
After exchanging ideas on physical fitness from Lafayette, Indiana to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, he hopes fellow students will follow his lead.
This spring, Troupe, a Wareham Middle School student, was named Massachusetts’ 2016-2017 Fuel Up to Play 60 State Ambassador.
With the title came opportunities to attend that organization’s Student Ambassador Summit held in Indiana this July, a regional summit and a visit to a Patriots’ pre-season practice on Aug. 9.
Launched by the National Dairy Council and the NFL, Fuel Up to Play 60 is a youth-led program focused on getting students to adopt healthy habits.
Indiana helps to lead Wareham’s Fuel Up to Play 60 program along with a handful of other students and student advisor Nicole Stahmer, a physical education teacher at the school.
“It’s a completely a student-led program,” said Indiana.
As one of 156 students from across the country chosen to attend the national summit, Indiana said he was excited to exchange ideas about physical fitness.
“One of the big things about the summer was to share ideas,” he said. “I was really excited about that and I think we got a lot accomplished.”
Specifically, he said using “brain breaks” in the classroom was one technique he’d like to see adopted.
A brain break, he explained, is taking time out of class to exercise, which he says helps students focus and perform better academically.
Back in Massachusetts, Indiana, along with other student ambassadors from across New England, attended two workshops at Gillette Stadium, in July and earlier this month.
At the stadium, students participated in workshops, games and motivational sessions to help them become better leaders for their school programs.
Seeing the Patriots’ practice, was a nice bonus, said Indiana.
“There were only a select few chosen and we got to see a training session, which was pretty cool,” he said.
When school starts, Indiana said he’s going to take what he learned at the various sessions back to his classmates to use for another year of Fuel Up to Play 60 at Wareham Middle School.
