Campers at the Boys & Girls Club of Fall River Camp Welch had a chance to learn about Fall River's first Soda-free Summer Pledge Campaign on August 10, 2011 with a presentation by Healthy City Fall River coordinator Dr. David Weed. Campers were asked to guess the sugar content of typical sugary drinks and then saw the equivalent number of sugar packs that equaled the sugar content of each container. "When the 10, 17, 27 or 68 packs of sugar taped together held up next to 12 ounce, 20 ounce, 1 liter and 64 ounce drink bottles, there were audible gasps from the audience," reported Dr. Weed. Children were then invited to take a Soda-free Summer pledge to either reduce or eliminate sugary drinks for the rest of the summer. Over 1,600 signed pledge forms have been on display at Government Center from similar sessions held in the Fall River schools in June. Click here for photos of the initial announcement, here for pictures at the CD-REC Kick-off to Summer and here for photos at the 21st Century summer program at the Greene Elementary School in Fall River.. For more information on these projects, contact Dr. Weed at 508-324-2411. (Photos courtesy of Adam Coderre )

(Top row) Dr. Weed asks the assembled campers what they typically drink on a hot summer day before he holds up various size bottles of different drinks and campers hold up sugar packets taped together containing the equivalent amount of sugar in each bottle. (Middle row) Dr. Weed points out points out that, though some are labeled orange, grape or cherry, none of them have any real fruit juice in them and are artificially flavored and some are made with caffeine. (Bottom row. left) A camper hold one of the Soda-Free Summer Pledge forms that were passed out to the campers. (Bottom row, right) Camp Welch staff member Jordan Gagne holds some of the 129 forms that were completed and returned following the session.