~Find the perfect community health initiative... or better yet, start your own

When Cape Girardeau's new $50 million, four-story federal courthouse was being designed, two rooms were set aside for employees there to exercise.

"Many, many private businesses that build new buildings include exercise rooms and spaces for exercise equipment," says Jim Woodward, U.S. court clerk for the Eastern District of Missouri. "The courts are really just following a trend that is already pretty prevalent in the private sector."

Woodward said an exercise room allows court staff to work out before and after work and during lunch time and that in turn promotes good health. "They are sick less often," he said.

The focus on fitness -- at home, at work and in the community -- is a trend that extends through all age groups and demographics. From community gardens to competitive exercise challenges, Southeast Missouri offers a number of ways to stay healthy. Here's a peek at some of the area's most successful programs.

Shape Up Cape

For five years, area businesses have come together in the annual Shape Up Cape campaign.

Fifty-nine students of the Marathon Kids Club stretched before they ran their final 1.2 mile at Clippard Elementary School Monday. (Diane Wilson)

The four-month-long exercise competition is sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce.

A variety of exercises are assigned a point value and an individual's points are calculated into the team's total. Activities range from low-intensity to high-intensity exercises. Playing nine holes of golf will get an individual 5 points, while an individual who swims for 20 minutes receives 10 points.

An individual can receive a maximum daily total of 25 points with a maximum of 105 points per week.

The goal of the campaign is to promote healthy lifestyles, said Tim Arbeiter, Chamber of Commerce vice president of community development.

"By using it as a competition, it's a great way to promote healthy diets and exercise," Arbeiter said. Shape Up Cape also encourages individuals to continue exercising after the campaign is over, he said.

Marathon Kids

Students of Clippard Elementary School run an annual one mile Marathon Kids race. The program has already been copied in other school districts from Jackson to Carbondale, Ill.

This after-school program stresses running, reading and helping others.

The students meet each Wednesday after school in the Clippard gym and eat a healthy snack while learning about the importance of exercise, good nutrition and healthy lifestyles. The students do stretching exercises before running a mile on the city's recreation trail near the school. On rainy days, they run laps in the school gym.

Students keep a log of the books they have read and their good deeds. Parents and teachers sign the log book to verify that the students have completed the books and charitable tasks.

By the end of the school year, the students are expected to have read 26 books, done 26 good deeds and run 26.2 miles.

Project Aces

One of the world's largest exercise classes, Project ACES, took place this past year at Oran School District. Project ACES began in 1989 by a physical education teacher, Len Saunders in New Jersey. Saunders wanted to get one school in every state to take part in a fitness activity on the same day and at the same time, in hopes of motivating his physical education class to exercise.

Robert Harris, right, and Katie Allstun planted about 300 tomatoes plants at the Fountain street community garden. The plants were donated by the Southeast Missouri State University to the community garden. Harris and seven others take care of the garden about twice a week. The vegetables and flowers grown at the garden will be donated to certain families in the neighborhood. (Diane Wilson)

ACES stands for All Children Exercise Simultaneously. Each school participating in Project ACES can determine what type of exercise they will perform and for how long. Oran's Project ACES involved stretching and warmup exercise lead by special guests Peak Performance Tae Kwon Do owners/instructors DeRay Ivie and Ted Ivie from Cape Girardeau. Over 500 students, teachers, parents, and grandparents participated in the event and then enjoyed a brief demonstration by the instructors.

Getting to work

Kris Baranovic hasn't driven a car to work all year.

Instead the assistance manager as Burrito-Ville has been biking to work along with a couple of coworkers. The Cape Girardeau business has even taken to delivering food on bikes if the residence is within a reasonable distance, Baranovic says.

"I'm faster than a car within a good mile to a mile-and-a-half on a delivery," he says.

At a time when bicycle enthusiasts are pushing to make Cape Girardeau more bicycle friendly, more and more residents are making bicycling to work part of their daily routine.

The Cape Girardeau County Administration Building in Jackson recently purchased a bicycle rack from Cape Bicycle Cycling and Fitness. Tom Ertman, who works in the data processing department, was one of the employees who pushed for the rack. He said he's been riding his bicycle to and from work for a couple years and now it'll be more convenient.