When an opportunity arises, you seize it – right? That’s exactly what Community Wellness Nurse Linda Brunk did when she was presented with the challenge of creating an educational piece for elementary students.

“I started to read more about the ill effect of sugar and was looking for workbooks centered on sugar consumption - specifically in kids,” said Linda. “I was able to find bits and pieces, but there wasn’t an exact workbook to use as a guide.”

In the fall of 2014, Linda went to work. She began by creating a committee of health professionals that consisted of registered dietitians, nurse diabetic educators, AultCare, the Canton City School District, the Stark County Health Department, the OSU extensions, and interns from both Malone University and Ohio University. She credits the team’s collaboration and expertise in helping bring her idea to life.

“I could not have completed the program without the help of the entire team,” Linda said. The committee met on a biweekly basis, and after six months, Linda begin developing a workbook she could use out in the community to teach children about the side effects of sugar.

“I wanted to incorporate education with physical activity – as combining the two tends to be more impactful on young children. So, I decided to add the game Kick the Can to pair with my workbook,” she said. “We ended up with a program that has three components: reduce and educate third-graders about sugar, increase their water consumption and get them to exercise 60 minutes a day.”

Though the name Kick the Can was already trademarked, Linda worked with the Aultman Legal Department to obtain permission to use it in her program. She was able to develop a partnership with the California Center for Public Health Advocacy to acquire legal permission to use their Kick the Can trademark for three years.

To make the program her own, Linda held an art contest with Canton City School District Arts Academy at Summit’s fourth-grade class. The winners of the contest created the characters for the workbook – Sugar Slug is the villain and Super Boy and Super Girl are the heroes.

“After meeting with school administrators and teachers, fellow committee member Liz Heiser and I were able to pilot my program at Cedar Elementary in the spring of last year,” Linda said. “From that experience, which was wonderful, I gained so much insight.”

Linda re-evaluated and made some changes. She’s improved the program to align with common core standards in schools and even wrote a short story. Her program is now a two-week lesson plan - complete with a teacher’s guide and toolkits. Linda will continue rolling out the program this month at Sandy Valley Elementary.