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Rosalie Aguilar-Santos

Rosalie Aguilar Santos, MS, is Salud America!'s national project coordinator. She is passionate about nutrition, physical activity, and opportunities to engage communities in advocacy actions to promote Latino childhood health.


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Articles by Rosalie Aguilar-Santos

Mc Allen ISD Middle School Hosts Healthy Fall Festival Fundraiser



For students at Cathey Middle School in Mc Allen, TX, fundraisers are both healthy and fun. In Fall 2014, during the last two periods of the school day, students participated in a school-wide fundraiser which featured a rock wall, scavenger hunt, races, a moon jump, and musical chairs. As part of the festivities students also had access to healthy snacks. "It's a great day for Cathey and it's a new model for fundraising for PTO (Parent Teacher Organization), said Cathey Middle School Principal, Melvin Benford." Learn more about how junk food marketers target Latino kids with unhealthy ads by accessing Salud America!'s Growing Healthy Change Healthier Marketing resources ...

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Latino Teen Helps Bring a Salad Bar to His High School in San Antonio, Texas



Alexander Castillo was looking to make some healthy changes in his own life when he came to the realization that his school lacked tasty, nutritious lunch options. Why couldn’t his school have a salad bar? After joining the Mayor’s Fitness Council Student Ambassador program, developing a plan with his mentor, and reaching out to his district’s food services department, Alexander was able to secure a salad bar for his high school. The new salad bar led to an increase in salad purchases and a new outlook on eating fresh fruit and vegetables at his school. EMERGENCE Awareness: Alexander Castillo, a student at Southwest Academy (a non-traditional alternative high school in the mostly Latino city of San Antonio, Texas) set a goal to pursue his passion for wrestling in 2014. He ...

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Lawmakers in Tennessee Propose Law in Support of More PE For K-5th Grade Students



In Tennessee lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require students in grades kindergarten through fifth (K-5) to participate in a physical education (P.E.) at least two times per week. If enacted, as of July 1, 2015, the new law would require all students to receive between 30-45 minutes of PE time twice weekly. Furthermore, schools would not be allowed to substitute activities such as remedial classroom work, additional academic instructional time, participation in school athletic teams or clubs for time spent in PE. Read more about this here. To learn more about barriers to physical activity for Latino Kids, access Salud America!'s Active Play resources ...

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The 2015 Vive Tu Vida Health & Wellness Event Series For Latinos Kicks-Off in Phoenix, AZ



Are you ready to make health a priority in your community? Then look for the National Alliance for Hispanic Health's  ¡Vive tu Vida! Get Up! Get Moving! event near you! On Saturday March 7, 2015, ¡Vive tu Vida!  will kick-off its ninth annual community-wide event, which brings free health screenings and fitness programming to Latinos all across the U.S. Thanks to support from local community-based organization partner, Concilio Latino de Salud & multiple sponsors such as Newman’s Own Foundation, Univision, the Embassy of Mexico and the United States Tennis Association, the first of this 11-city event series will take place on Saturday at John R. Davis Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona. At the event, in addition to free healthy screenings, there will ...

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Latino Legislator Launches Resolution & Challenge For Better Health



On March 2, 2015 Congressman Charles Rangel, New York's District 13 Representative, signed a resolution to encourage healthy lifestyle practices and raise awareness of food inequality in the US. The resolution challenges the community to do 3 things for at least 30 days: 1. Replace all sugary beverages with water; 2. Eat breakfast everyday; and 3. Eat one additional serving of fruits or vegetables per day. Read more about this here. Click here to sign the resolution. Visit the Rangel Resolution Facebook page here and use the hashtag #RangelRes to share your progress. Are you or your local leaders working to make a healthy difference in your community? Have you heard of any healthier marketing campaigns lately? Share your story with Salud ...

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Creating More Walkable Latino Communities by Using ‘WayFinding’



How can we work to make Latino communities more walkable? Why not try pointing people in the direction of the nearest parks, cafes, shops, and other community assets? Thanks to the Walk Your City initiative, local residents in communities all across the country are encouraging people to walk and bike to nearby areas by using a strategy called "wayfinding" that uses signs to direct people to nearby landmarks and amenities. The idea was born when urban designer Matt Tomasulo realized that people weren't walking much because they often thought places were farther than they actually were. After realizing this, Tomasulo created signs that used minutes instead of miles, to show people that places weren't really that far. Since its launch, over 100 communities (including the 48.7% Latino ...

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Celebrities Endorse Fruits & Vegetables As Part of the New ‘FNV Campaign’



Look out junk food! Fresh fruits and vegetables are in the spotlight thanks to a new healthy marketing campaign called FNV. Each year the food industry spends billions on marketing food to the public. Unfortunately only a small fraction of that is aimed at selling healthy food items like fresh fruits and vegetables to the public. In order to reignite some excitement around eating more fruits and veggies, the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) has teamed up with celebrities like Jessica Alba, Kristen Bell, Nick Jonas, WWE wrestler John Cena, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, to promote healthy eating. The new campaign will include print and out-of-home advertising as well as sponsorships of youth sports ...

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Let’s Move Celebrates Its 5th Year With #GimmeFive Social Media Campaign



Have you been making healthier choices lately? It's time to brag a little by showing others how you're making a healthy difference in your life and the lives of others! This year marks the fifth anniversary of Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign. Kids, parents, and teachers all over the country have joined the Let's Move movement and made huge strides in living a healthier and more active lifestyle. To celebrate the First lady is asking everyone to: Share 5 ways to be healthy on social media using the hashtag #GimmeFive  (also tweet at @FLOTUS & @LetsMove); and Celebrate by giving people high fives when you catch them making healthy choices. Salud America! also wants to celebrate your success stories, so if you know of anyone who's helped bring healthy ...

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New Tweetchat Series! #LiveFitNOLA w/ @TulanePRC @FitNOLA



Join the Tulane Prevention Research Center and the City of New Orleans for a monthly Tweetchat on Healthy Living! The #LiveFitNOLA Tweetchat series will kick-off on March 3, 2015 at 12pm CST. This month's guest is Louisiana's Health & Fitness Magazine. Follow @TulanePRC, @FitNOLA, and @Healthfitmag on Twitter and stay tuned to the great work they're doing to promote better health. Don't forget to use the hashtag #LiveFitNOLA in all of your tweets! See you ...

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