A new program that starts this week at Girls Inc. will teach its members how to get active and eat right, said the group's director.

Through the Stepping Stones program, girls who go to Girls Inc. after school will have physical fitness and nutrition classes once a week, Director Patty Alford said.

It is important to get kids to live healthily, especially with the increase in the number of kids with health problems once rare in children, Alford said.

“You've got kids who's already suffering from diabetes and other obesity-related diseases,” she said.

At Girls Inc., which offers both an after-school program and a summer camp, many kids aren't very interested in running around and playing, Alford said. They mostly want to watch movies and use the computer.

“They don't even want to go skating and bowling much anymore,” Alford said.

She hopes the new program will get them more excited about being active.

Alford has purchased a slew of new sports equipment such as jump ropes, balls and a volleyball net, which was scheduled for delivery Friday. The girls are looking forward to using the new stuff, she said.

“They were definitely excited that we were getting all this equipment,” Alford said.

Girls Inc. has already hired a fitness instructor, and is still looking for someone to teach the nutrition classes.

Western Kentucky University junior Shannon Duke, 20, of Owensboro will be teaching the fitness part of the class. She is majoring in physical education, with a minor in health.

“It's important for children, especially younger children, to grow up knowing they need to act healthy,” said Duke, who wants to teach physical education in a middle school after she graduates.

Her courses at Western have had practical elements that prepared her to teach at the Girls Inc. program, she said.

“Last year we actually had to pretend that our class was for little kids,” Duke said.

She'll be teaching the Girls Inc. members the fundamentals of sports like basketball, as well as skills that are useful on and off the playing field, like teamwork, she said.

The instructors' salaries and the cost of equipment are being paid for by a $16,800 grant from the Bowling Green Enterprise Community, a federally funded program run by the city government.

The enterprise community's board liked that the program would provide solutions to childhood obesity problems, said Lisa Ryan, a city employee who serves as CEO of the community, which received about $169,000 in federal money to distribute this year.

Stepping Stones would “get them moving in the right direction literally and nutritionally,” Ryan said.

Girls Inc. is a nonprofit program that serves girls from the ages of 5 to 18. Besides the health program, girls take classes in art, computers and financial planning, as well as get homework help.