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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Meadow View Elementary School is one of 36 schools statewide that were awarded a Be Healthy School Grant by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama.

Since 2012, each year Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama awards grants to schools across the state with this year’s 36 recipients receiving a combined total of $318,000.

“We’re honored (to do this) every year,” said Heidi Ramey, senior communications specialist for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama. “We think that it’s important to invest in local education all around the state.”

The grants are used to implement school-based health and wellness programs and to emphasize increased exercise, nutrition, education and parental involvement during the school year.

“We found that there is not an abundance of grant opportunities for physical education,” Ramey said. “We entered that space in 2012 and ever since then, we really made a lot of connections around the state in education, especially in physical education, and we just feel that it’s important to support these kids and these local communities.”

Each school selected receives a grant of $10,000 and will utilize the funds to support physical education programs, including examples such as physical education equipment, walking tracks and bicycles, school gardens, rock climbing walls and adaptive playground equipment.

MVES is the only school in Shelby County selected to receive a grant. The school plans to utilize the funds from its grant to help pay for a project to make its playground more ADA compliant.

“They were looking for a way to make their playground more accessible for students that maybe were in wheelchairs, or on walking canes or had some sort of mobility issue, so they could then safely enjoy the playground with their peers,” Ramey said.

Since the grant program first launched, Blue Cross has awarded more than $3.2 million in 356 Be Healthy Grants—impacting more than 168,000 students statewide.

“It’s a long standing program for us and it’s essential,” Ramey said. “It’s basically a lot of the work that I do and I highly enjoy it because we don’t just give this money out. I go personally visit every one of these schools, all 36 of them, between probably October through May and we’re going to see firsthand these kids enjoying this equipment, and we really get to meet the teachers, meet the principals and it’s just a joy.”