The Fifth Annual Health Authority Quiz, involving students from the five houses at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, was won by Maroon House. In addition to the first place trophy, the winning house received $100 top up for each participating student as well as gift bags from Digicel.
In second place was Orange House. Four of the participating students received coupons for free lunches from Larry’s Catering Services at Ashley &Sons.
Yellow House took third place, winning fruit baskets for each of the participating students, courtesy the Health Authority of Anguilla.
The other competitors were students from Pink House and Purple House, all of whom performed well. The individual winner from among all the students, from the five houses, was Kara Hughes of Yellow House.
The prizes and gifts were distributed by Chief Operations Officer, with the Health Authority, Clavis Carter-Gumbs assisted by Mrs. Vernice Battick.
Earlier, at the opening ceremony, Mrs. Carter-Gumbs said that the object of the quiz competition was to create an awareness of the importance of adapting healthy lifestyles among students and by extension to the community.
“With the advent of so many chronic non-communicable diseases found in the adult population, and even in young people, including overweight and its related problems of diabetes and hypertension, it is of crucial importance to conduct this programme in the schools, ”she stated. “It is to address the importance of healthy lifestyles to enable our youth to live healthier lives.”
Vernice Battick, Coordinator at the Health Promotion/Nutrition Department, said that now that the local health quiz had been completed, the best four students would be selected to compete in the annual regional competition. The event, coordinated by the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute, will be held in October in one of the islands to be announced later.
Mrs. Battick noted that during February and March, staff of the Nutrition and Health Promotion Department worked in collaboration with Kirsty Webster, Guidance and Counsellor, and Physical Education Teachers, to conduct nutrition and health education sessions for fourth formers during the Personal Social Health Education sessions.
The topics included the importance of healthy eating, and there were DVD presentations on management of chronic diseases. There were also a food-testing exercise and sessions on sexually-transmitted diseases and reproductive health. The sessions were conducted by Senior Health and Nutrition Educators and the Dietetic Technician.
The Health Promotion and Nutrition Department is grateful to all the Physical Education Teachers for their assistance in teaching the sessions. The Department is also grateful to Ivor Hodge, Chief Information Officer at Radio Anguilla, for his outstanding role as Moderator for the quiz.
