Children in the 21st Century programs at the Greene Elementary Schools had a chance to hear more about Fall River's first Soda-free Summer Pledge Campaign on August 4, 2011 with a presentation by Healthy City Fall River coordinator Dr. David Weed. Children were asked to guess the sugar content of typical sugary drinks before volunteers Jean Claude King, Alexia Borden and Devin Desa held up sugar packs that equaled the sugar content of each container. "The kids and most of the teachers were visibly shocked when they got to see 10, 17, 27 or 68 packs of sugar taped together displayed next to 12 ounce, 20 ounce, 1 liter and 64 ounce drink bottles," reported Weed. Children were then asked to take a Soda-free Summer pledge to either reduce or eliminate sugary drinks for the rest of the summer. Over 1,600 signed pledge forms are on display at Government Center from similar sessions held in the Fall River schools in June. Click here for photos of the initial announcement and here for pictures at the CD-REC Kick-off to Summer. For more information on these projects, contact Dr. Weed at 508-324-2411. (Photos courtesy of Jarrad Plante)

(Top row) Dr. Weed asks over 200 children in the 21st Century program at the Greene School what they typically drink on a hot summer day, and most said "water" though some said "soda", "lemonade" or other sugary drinks. The 21st century summer program offers students water throughout the summer and this could have had the positive influence when asked what they typically drink.  (Middle row) Dr. Weed holds up various size bottles of different drinks and points out that, though some are labeled orange, grape or cherry, none of them have any real fruit juice in them and are artificially flavored and some are made with caffeine. (Bottom row, left and center) Dr. Weed asks Devin Desa, Jean Claude King and Alexia Borden to hold up sugar packs taped together to illustrate the amount of sugar in each sized drink. (Bottom row, right) Students agree to fill out a soda-free pledge form that will be put on display at Government Center.