The second Fitness Challenge Rally was held on March 8, 2008 at Community Development Recreation (CD-REC) on Bank Street. In this session, Bill Daponte of the Diabetes Association talked about identifying good foods and learning to avoid foods with little nutritional value, especially drinks containing sugar. Annual sales of these beverages now top $38 billion dollars. This session is offered free-of-charge to the over 1,000 people who have signed up for the Challenge. The Challenge offers participants low-cost Zumba classes, low-impact aerobic classes at the Diabetes Association, Inc, senior stretching, kickboxing and personal training, as well as nutrition classes throughout the week. Participants can also use the pool at the Boys and Girls club on Bedford Street during specified hours. Participants are eligible to win prizes through drawings held throughout the Challenge. Click here for photos of the first Fitness Challenge Rally. Click here for photos of a nutrition seminar offered at Bristol Community College. Contact Bill Daponte at 508-672-5671 or CD-REC Program Director Grace Gerling, 508-679-0922, for more information.

(Top row, left) Rally participants Marilyn Tripp, Amy Medeiros and Joyce Berube listen in the back row as Vicky ______ responds to a question posed by Bill Daponte of the the Diabetes Association about the sugar content of soda. (Middle row, left) Bill relates the rising incidence of Type 2 among children and adolescents to the overabundance of inexpensive sodas which contain 41 teaspoons of sugar in a half gallon "Big Gulp" drink market to kids. (Middle row, center) Seven-year-old Darrius Wheeler holds a two-pound bag of sugar, about the amount consumed by a typical teenager in a week. (Middle row, right) Bill passes around a simulated five-pound strip of human fat, much of which comes from the excess calories that most adults consume. (Bottom row, left) Maria Bouchard fills out a survey of Challenge participants that will be circulated on-line. (Bottom row, center) Bill demonstrates how many sugar packets are in a single Big Gulp drink. (Bottom row, right) Joyce Berube accepts her prize of a gift basket from Party Girls Catering from CD-REC director Grace Gerling.