Earmarked by his advocacy for all things active with the tagline “moving all ways – always moving,” movement sciences professor John Kilbourne is quickly gaining rapport in the world of health and wellness through his participation in an online e-book project titled “Raising Healthy Kids.”

“The Raising Healthy Kids project started out as a fundraiser competition,” said Smart Club Marketing’s Casey Conrad, who spearheaded the project in an effort to help health club operators learn how to use the Internet to drive their business. “As an industry, we are very far behind many other industries, and it is like pulling teeth to get operators to embrace using the Internet.”

To help the health clubs rise to the challenge, Conrad asked operators to promote the Raising Healthy Kids audio education program to their club members with half of the profits going to their club, 25 percent of the profits going toward a charity that fights childhood obesity and the final 25 percent as prize money awarded at a raffle held at an upcoming industry convention.

The Raising Healthy Kids e-book and interview series features interviews from a series of experts from various disciplines geared toward helping parents help their children create healthy habits during the pivotal childhood years.

“Mine was primarily on the importance of play and creativity in games and sports and life,” Kilbourne said. “You know, people do learn through sports and play. They learn about leadership, they learn about moving in a free environment and not always having to be awarded with extrinsic awards. We learn about creating our own rules and then having our own consequences.”

Especially now, he added, in an age where sports for children are organized largely by adults, education on how to get kids interested is essential.

“I think that’s a big part of the reason that most of the kids are turned off to physical activity is because it’s not exciting for them,” he said.

Kilbourne said he hopes his portion of Raising Healthy Kids helps parents better understand how to get their kids excited about play and to encourage creativity.

“It’s always exciting to have been asked to do something like this,” Kilbourne said. “I think that’s the most exciting, to be asked – that you’ve done enough to do it.”

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