MAY PEN, Clarendon — The Leo Club of Clarendon is on a mission to encourage children to eat well and exercise more.

A news release from the club said it recently launched ‘Kids in Motion’ – a Diabetes awareness forum and aerobics marathon for 50 children at the Canaan Heights Community Centre.

According to Vice President of Community Outreach, Tissona Ormsby, “The Kids in Motion Campaign is a wellness project of the Leo Club of Clarendon that was implemented to encourage children to eat well, live healthy and be physically active in order to stop childhood obesity which could cause chronic illnesses such as diabetes.”

Nutritionist for the parish of Clarendon Debbie Ottey-Golding lauded the Leo Club for taking the initiative to increase diabetes and childhood obesity awareness and spoke of the growing health concerns among youth.

“One of the biggest health concerns today is obesity and when children are overweight, it increases their chances of developing Type II Diabetes,” she said.

Golding told children and parents about the causes and types of diabetes, and encouraged the children to do more physical activities and to exercise at least 30 minutes every day.

“You may find that due to lifestyle changes, children no longer go outdoors to play or they engage in very little physical activities apart from Physical Education (PE) at school. As parents, we need to practise what we preach. We can’t just tell the children to eat healthy because they are not the ones who buy the food,” Golding said.