First of all, my name is Stephen. I started the website for Penguin Kids Fitness in November 2011, and in order to be able to remember the date forever, launched on 11/11/11. It wasn’t quite 11:11am, but was incredibly close, so I can safely say that this special day will never be forgotten. The concept has evolved massively since the start and has gone from me setting out to teach classes across the UK to children to get them to be active, evolving into promoting people doing this and also promoting products as well as services to ensure all aspects of children’s welfare is now covered.
The website is now at a position where the purposes are strongly defined and I am working towards two main goals, which are the following:
1. To promote products and services that benefit the health, fitness and wellbeing of children
2. To engage with children to inspire and motivate them to take part in sport and physical activity
I have explained how the first element evolved, and I have seen positive reaction to promoting a wide range of products and services. This started with promoting businesses and organisations across the UK, but with the help of launching a French speaking version of the website, the website(s) now promote products and services which are international, as well as businesses and organisations nationally in UK, USA, France and Ireland. This is growing and there is now the clear aim to promote and be seen across the world, wholly aided by the fact that the main promotion and marketing is through Twitter and Facebook, which makes all of this possible.
The engagement side of the Penguin Kids Fitness business is done through two main aspects. Work is being done to create lots of resources for teachers which will help them to make PE more fun and get more kids engaged, inspired and motivated to take part in sport and physical activity. The other way that the site is engaging with children is to target them directly through the "Stuff for Kids" section Meet The Characters, which has seen the creation of a total of 24 Penguins, each one representing a different sport. A working progress, the eventual aim is for each penguin to have a profile, an interview with them plus more details on the sport they play and how kids can start playing that sport.
There are other elements and areas on the "Stuff for Kids" section, and hopefully I have whetted your appetite to check out the site and find out what these other areas are. I feel I can say that you will discover even better things when you get there, and I hope that kids will walk away wanting to discover a new sport or take part in different activities.
The drive to create Penguin Kids Fitness has really come from wanting to make a real impact on the life of our younger generations, and to ensure that they get the most out of all the opportunities which now exist for them. As well as all these fantastic and motivating opportunities which would see kids running around and trying different activities, there seems to be an equal amount of opportunities which would actually prevent them from taking part in sport. Whether the various distractions of television, computer games and computer activities, or the need for them to do lots and lots of work in subjects for school, the main thing that now lacks in a child’s life is the ability to run around, be free and burn energy. I know I am not alone in being worried that this could have a very bad effect on their lives, especially as the habits we develop later in life are founded upon the habits we teach ourselves as a child. As a result, it is really important that we get our children to run around more and take part in sport and physical activity, as this means they will be more likely to take part in sport or go out running when they are older, thinking of this as natural.
I think that just about explains why and what the Penguin Kids Fitness website is all about. What started as a website which I thought would be seen by a few people has grown to something that is now seen around the world, and it is quite nice to think about this. The steady growth of the website and support has been really positive, and I am looking forward to it growing more and more as the site is developed with the number of resources that are available for parents, teachers and children.
If you have not yet seen the website, you can check it out at www.penguinkidsfitness.com. To stay up to date with all updates and see when new links and resources arrive on the website, follow/like us on twitter (our profile is @PenguinKidsFit) or on Facebook (our page is www.facebook.com/PenguinKidsFitness).
Children will Love Playing Along Side the Penquin Characters!
Please feel free to contact us is you have any questions you want answered. The contact details are on the website, or you can use the contact forms and they will come through to me.
I hope you have enjoyed this guest blog. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Julie for giving me the opportunity, and hope you keep following her blog to follow the fantastic work and inspiration she provides through the Happy Heartbeats Counters (I support and follow her, and there is a link to her blog on the Penguin Kids Fitness website).
I hope you all have a good week.
Thanks, Stephen
