Our kids are fat.

It’s a pretty hard thing to say out loud, but plain and simple, we’re killing our own children.

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years (CDC). The percentage of obese children between 6-11 years in the United States increased from 7% in 1982 nearly 18% in 2012.

“When I read that statistic my heart broke”, said Michael Platt owner of Ultima Fitness. “Obesity leads to Type 2 Diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure but more importantly, are the psychological effects which include stigmatization, bullying and low self-esteem”, continued Platt.

“As soon as I read that statistic I knew I wanted to be a part of the solution. 15 years ago recycling was a novelty. And now nearly every house in America has a blue recycling box out in front of it. I thought about how what seems like such a small change for each individual household had such a drastic impact diverting waste from our landfills.”

“It also made me realize that if every single person takes some responsibility, even if it’s only a tiny bit, the global change can be overwhelming. That’s how Ultima Fitness Kid’s Camp was born: out of a sense of responsibility to the greater good and to the community at large. We’re all responsible for the health and welfare of our fellow Americans.”

“We also knew that in addition to the physical exercise, nutrition and access to proper information would be cornerstones of our goal to help kids in our community succeed at achieving and maintaining a healthy level of fitness.”

The Challenges: Brand Awareness, Access to Information

“Right away I knew that Social Media would need to be a cornerstone of our efforts. If we wanted to reach kids, we needed to be where those kids were. And right now it’s on Facebook and Twitter.”

“When I got a demo from the guys at Fitness Horse Power a light-bulb went off. I knew we needed to harness this technology, and if we wanted to reach the maximum number of kids in our area, we needed to jump on this technology.”

The Solution: Social Media Brand Ambassadors

“All of the trainers wanted to participate, but a lot of them just didn’t have time to post. And some of the trainers just weren’t 100% up to speed on exactly what was happening day-to-day with the Kids Camp project.”

“Using Fitness Horse Power as our backbone made it easy. We had one staff meeting and all 19 of our personal trainers signed up on the spot. After that, sharing was easy, I was able to post our most important information about the program when I needed to.”

“The cool thing was with just 19 employees participating, we reached over 12,000 people. Considering that West Palm Beach only has 100,000 people living here, that was great start.”

“One of our first posts was a movie that helped explain the role of hidden sugars in processed foods and their impact on our kids. I think the post really resonated with parents and kids alike. With just 19 brand ambassadors, we got 212 clicks, 16 likes, 6 shares and 2 comments.”

“That means for every personal trainer who shared the story, they had nearly 13 people engage with our training staff in some manner. That’s pretty incredible.”

Make your brand awareness commendable with Fitness Horse Power

“I’m just glad that in some small way, we’re able to help”, said Fitness Horse Power Founder Alen Bubich. “Information is power, and I think the first step in helping our kids destroy the obesity problem is access to information and more importantly, the help of great folks like Michael Platt and his team at Kids Camp. They’ve made fitness fun, accessible and social. I think that’s a winning formula.”

About Ultima Downtown Fitness

Ultima Downtown Fitness has been a beacon of health and fitness within the West Palm Beach area for over 21 years. They have a state-of-the-art 19,000 ft. fitness facility with over 40 group fitness classes per week. In a bid to tackle one of America’s biggest problems, they’ve recently launched Ultima Kid’s Camp to great success. The camp features a Kids’ Fitness Boot Camp, which is an exciting and fun filled exercise class run by fitness industry professionals. The class makes use of fitness games, team activities, body-weight exercises and obstacle courses all with the aim to help kids improve agility, strength, endurance, self-esteem and coordination.