University of Manitoba Athletes Council (UMAC)

Manitoba Bisons student-athletes begin two new initiatives in the community with Bison Book Buddies and CANU
Both programs strive to assist young students throughout the Winnipeg region

As a New Year starts, the Manitoba Bisons student-athletes have begun new initiatives in the community with the Bison Book Buddies and CANU programs. These two new programs strive to assist young students throughout the Winnipeg region.

The University of Manitoba Athletic Council (UMAC) has developed the Bison Book Buddies program as an initiative to increase and emphasize literacy in students in grades one to four. The program starts at the end of January and runs through to March/April 2011. The idea is to create a fun learning environment where students are interested and motivated to read. The first visit to the schools will involve inclusionary activities where the students and athletes will get to know each other and practice fun literacy activities. In the next visits, the athletes are available to be paired or grouped with students to read or be read to. A group of 5 to 12 Bison student-athletes per time slot (either morning or afternoon) will visit four classrooms (Beaverlodge, Dalhousie, St. Avila, Royal) this year and look to increase school numbers for next school year.

The CANU on campus pilot project was spearheaded by Bison chaplain Roger Barrington and is now being implemented by Bison student-athletes. On every Tuesday late afternoon/early evening during this school year, U of Manitoba students from the Bison track & field and cross country teams, the Faculty of Education and the Department of Nutrition are invited to apply to mentor, coach and develop component – specific programs for a group of school children from Winnipeg’s inner city. Bison track athletes will be responsible for developing and executing an 18 week running and fitness program for 12 children who have not had formal track coaching or training but who have been selected for the CANU program in part because of a good athletic capacity. The goal is to deliver a high quality and fun program which will expose these grades 4-6 children to track & field and cross country, and will give them an experience at the university campus which will enhance their potential and opportunity to one day successfully study at a post-secondary level. Students in the other components of the program will provide mentoring in healthy lifestyles, nutrition and cooking as well as personal tutoring.

 
For more information, for Bison Book Buddies: contact Vanessa De Vries at umdevriv@cc.umanitoba.ca or for CANU: contact Andrea Hesketh at umheskea@cc.umanitoba.ca .

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More information coming soon!