Six Steps to Success: How to Become a Fuel Up to Play 60 Touchdown School

Each school year, the Touchdown School Award is presented to Fuel Up to Play 60 schools that demonstrate a commitment to the program, and to school wellness, by completing all six of the program’s Six Steps. Progression through the steps is a great way to get students motivated, with built-in incentives and rewards that encourage kids to work together—and to work hard—to achieve their goals. Schools that score a touchdown before April 1, 2015, will qualify to receive a Touchdown School display banner, or a new helmet decal to add to an existing banner.

The Six Steps

Fuel Up to Play 60 has developed six steps to help schools implement the program; they can be done in any order. Grab the downloadable/printable cheat sheet (seen at right) to use as a guide.

• Step One: Join Fuel Up to Play 60, and become a Program Advisor; in order to qualify for the Touchdown School Award, schools must have a program advisor who checks off each of the six steps on his/her dashboard as they are completed.
• Step Two: Build a Fuel Up to Play 60 team, encouraging students and adults to participate. The more team members, the greater chance of success you’ll have implementing healthy changes at school. Enlist support from school administrators as well as members of the community. In order to qualify for the Touchdown School Award, schools must have at least one student who has earned enough points to reach level three (Ambassador Level) for the 2014-15 school year.
• Step Three: Hold a Fuel Up to Play 60 kickoff event to raise visibility and build excitement in your school and your community. Kickoff events are great motivators, and a fun way to get people participating in Fuel Up to Play 60.
• Step Four: Work with students to “survey the field”—that is, complete the School Wellness Investigation. The School Wellness Investigation is an important tool that will help you determine as a group where your school could improve, as well as provide suggestions for Plays you can do to make healthy changes.
• Step Five: It’s Game Time! Work with the team to select Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Plays; there are dozens to choose from!
• Step Six: You can ‘Light Up the Scoreboard’ by sharing a success story and photos detailing what your team has done. Inspire others, and get inspired on the Fuel Up to Play 60 community page.

Fuel Up to Play 60 Interactive Timeline

The Fuel Up to Play 60 Interactive Timeline is a simple, fun way to customize your game plan, whether it’s around the Six Steps or other program elements. You can set reminders to help you plan and take action; you can also save the timeline to your dashboard, and make changes throughout the year. Simply drag and drop the icons into one of four “quarters” of your game plan; in addition to icons correlating to each of the Six Steps, there are icons for the following:

• Earn Rewards & Recognition: Track accomplishments, earn points and prizes
• Survey & Polling: Survey students about healthy eating and physical activity habits and attitudes
• Funds for Fuel Up to Play 60: Apply for funds to support your efforts
• Fuel Up to Play 60 Pledge: Encourage students to take the FUTP60 pledge

There are currently 339 Fuel Up to Play 60 Touchdown Schools—add your school’s name to the list before April 15, 2015!