Orbit Skate Center

It's a sad fact that America has the fattest children in the world. Articles everywhere in all the newspapers, children's magazines, radio and television focus on how this is happening. They offer minimal solutions, foundations such as the Robert Wood Foundation pledge millions of dollars to fight it, but the children just keep getting fatter.

What is the easy solution? From this grandmother's perspective there's two that can be done right now, with minimal cost and the solutions are in almost every community. The unfortunate part is that the solutions aren't funded with government dollars, park district dollars so they cannot easily reach into the schools, the cafeteria's and make it happen.

Bring the kids to roller skate. Turn off the televisions, the computers, the video games and get them to the roller rinks 3 times a week for 3 hours of fun and exercise. Roller skating teaches coordination, balance, provides an incredible cardio workout and is endorsed by the President's Council on Fitness along with the American Heart Foundation as a great exercise that is twice as safe as bicycling.

So many roller rinks have closed because they cannot make enough money to keep the doors open. This is a travesty. As small business owners, we get no tax incentives, no funding to help this happen and generally most rinks charge about $4-$8 to skate for an evening or afternoon, cheaper than a movie that you sit at for 2 hours and stuff your face, adding to the obesity problem.

Bring your children to skate, skate yourself, take a class and learn how, any age can roller skate. There's college scholarships for those that excel in the sport, and bigger than that aspect, you teach your children health for life. Burn 300-500 calories per hour having fun.

Just skate...oh, and the second problem? Get corn syrup out of your diet, it's everywhere and it's sliming it's way into everyone's bodies and making them have extra calories they don't need and don't even realize they are eating.

Just this grandma's 2 cents