Encouraging Healthy Lifestyles Through Education
A program sponsored by Trustmark Companies and Lake Forest Hospital

Would you like to have a direct "Impact" on the health of your students?

Through the Impact Educator Grant Program, classroom programs in Lake County Illinois can receive up to $1,000 for promoting healthy lifestyles through innovative educational programs.

As a health insurance carrier, benefits administrator, and health and ftness management company, Trustmark supports health education programs such as Impact. We created Impact because we know how important it is to reach kids at an early age and instill healthy lifestyle habits. What better place to learn than at school?

Lake County, Illinois educators can apply for a 2011 Impact Educator Grant now through the October 25, 2010 deadline. Grants will be awarded in December 2010. Applications can be completed online or returned by mail.

The Impact program is available to all Lake County, Illinois, educators -- kindergarten through high school. Headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill., Trustmark has a long history of supporting the local communities it serves.

For more information on the Impact program, download the Impact brochure (PDF).

Its a Weighty Issue 
“The program ‘It’s a Weighty Issue’ involved 150 students who learned the importance and functions of nutrients, how the body uses food and how to make healthy food and beverage choices. The visual aids and hands-on activities made the unit real for the seventh graders. As a result of the Impact funding, students were more interested, actively involved, gained a wider spectrum of information, and witnessed first hand some of the negative, permanent consequences of an unhealthy diet.”

Kayla Irwin
Health teacher
Stanton School, Fox Lake, Ill.

Exceptional Equestrians
Sabrina Unnerstall, a special education teacher at Oak Terrace Elementary School in Highwood, Ill., received an Impact Grant to fund a unique program involving horses.
“The Exceptional Equestrians program has been the most rewarding series of events I have ever planned. Special education youngsters mounted horses to begin therapy, which results in greater spatial awareness, self esteem, core strength, balance and flexibility. We previously applied for the grant, but were not funded. So we just pretended to ride horses. It's so much different to have the real animals! An article about the program also appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times.”

Sabrina Unnerstall
Special Education teacher
Oak Terrace Elementary School
Highwood, Ill.

Bending Over Backwards for Health
“More than 350 second, third and fourth graders developed body awareness during gymnastic activities both stationary and in motion through the ‘Do You Know Where Your Body Is?’ program. The children rolled, leaped, jumped, twisted and spun in all directions. They stopped movement to balance, then resumed a sequence. The Impact Grant made purchase of new mats possible, so the children could spend more time practicing instead of waiting for turns.”

Chris Newman
Physical Education teacher
Diamond Lake Elementary School
Diamond Lake, Ill.

Yoga Animals
“Using the Impact Grant funding, we were able to train methods of yoga to our high school students who want to be teachers. They then turned around and taught yoga to 35 local pre-school children. Poses were done in fun ways such as imitating lions, birds and bugs. Yoga will start children on a path of lifelong health and happiness. Plus, our own students learn to be teachers while in high school.”

Gina Schuyler
Early Childhood Education
Lake County Technology Campus
Grayslake, Ill.