Bingham Memorial Hospital donates to local school’s PE program

A local school’s PE program got a big, and much needed, donation from Bingham Memorial Hospital.

The Alturas Academy in Idaho Falls is only two years old. Until today, their PE equipment consisted of very little.

“The kids would come down to the gym, we had a few basketballs, some jump ropes,” Michelle Ball, executive director for the Alturas Academy, said. “And as you know funding for charter schools is difficult and so we needed a wealth of pe equipment.”

Thanks to Bingham Memorial Hospital, the school now has hockey equipment, badminton nets, and even gaga ball, among many other activities.

“We’re just really excited for this new school to have a chance to have their kids get a full spectrum education,” Dr. Joseph Weatherly, a family medicine doctor with BMH, said. “To get the PE, the activity and the fun break from classroom and then maybe be able to go back in and focus a little more on the classroom.”

Both Dr. Weatherly and the Academy say health and physical activity are vitally important to learning in the classroom.

“Being mentally healthy is a big part of health,” Dr. Weatherly said. “And recreation and physical activity definitely helps that. I don’t think anybody can enjoy their education if they don’t have health.”

Ball agrees.

“You need to educate the whole child,” she said. “And so, that physical exercise is so important and that ability to learn to play games and cooperate and be a community and a team is a really crucial part of education. And we also believe that the physical activity is so crucial to their learning in the classroom.”

The kids also got soccer balls, footballs, mats, and even a parachute to use during PE.