Focus on Health with a Healthy Hydration Event

SPOTLIGHT: Cumberland Trace Elementary School PTA (Bowling Green, Ky.)

 This blog post is part of a series authored by local PTA leaders who received a Healthy Hydration Grant, sponsored by Nestlé Waters North America. They share practical advice and lessons learned from planning and hosting their events.

When I saw the opportunity to apply for the Nestlé Waters Healthy Hydration Program Grant through National PTA, I jumped at the opportunity. I knew winning the grant could help open a pathway for Cumberland Trace Elementary PTA to host a healthy lifestyles event at our school in Bowling Green, Ky!

Like most PTAs, we host lots of events, but rarely are they solely focused on health. We decided to hold our event during a time when many parents would be at our school anyway: our annual Thanksgiving lunch! This ended up working out perfectly because we were able to reach many parents and grandparents as they came to eat lunch with their students. We set up our Healthy Hydration Stations in the “holding area” where parents waited for their students and they were all really happy to try all of our infused water choices and to take a bottle of water with them to lunch.

We also included a display showing how much sugar is in other drinks and we had information about local outdoor activities families could go do together. The entire event came together very nicely and what was really great about it was we gave kids and parents new ideas on how to make their water fun at home!

Several of the recipes we used were unique—strawberry basil, cucumber mint and orange blueberry—and several parents said they never would have thought to put them in their water and looked forward to trying it at home. The kids really liked trying the different flavors, too; it was fun for them to try to mix and match. Strawberry basil was the clear winner with the younger set.

We had many teachers attend the event, which was another plus to hosting it during the school day. Many of them came by and were able to fill up their reusable water bottles with the infused water!

The only real cost involved for us was buying all the fruit, cups, napkins, dispensers and printing recipes and other information. The bottles of water and signage were all provided by National PTA and Nestlé Waters. Leading up to the event, I created a flyer, which we sent home to every student and posted on social media sites. We also included it in the school’s newsletter.

Initially, I thought I would love to see this become part of a larger event that the PTA hosts in the evening, but now that we held it during the school day, I think we were able to reach a larger audience and would absolutely do it again. Many students who probably have never had infused water were able to try it and learn that water can taste really great! To me, seeing their little surprised faces as they tasted water in a new way was the best part.

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Authored by Becky Durkee from Cumberland Trace Elementary School PTA in Bowling Green, Ky.

Disclosure: Nestlé Waters North America is a Proud National Sponsor of National PTA and a Founding Sponsor of National PTA’s Healthy Lifestyles Initiative. The local PTA spotlighted in this blog was a winner of a 20192020 Healthy Hydration Grant, sponsored by Nestlé Waters North America. The author was not compensated for this blog post and the author’s opinions are their own.