SHAPE America – Society of Health and Physical Educators and Booster, a company that offers a variety of school fundraising services, announced a new partnership to jointly operate and promote health. moves. minds.®, a fundraising program launched by SHAPE America in 2019 to help schools raise essential funds for resources that improve students’ physical and mental health, while incorporating lessons on kindness, respect and the importance of physical activity.
“We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to partner with Booster, a company that shares our core values and commitment to putting teachers and their schools first in a fundraising program,” said SHAPE America CEO Stephanie Morris. “We have always been proud of the high-quality, standards-based content that students receive through health. moves. minds., but with this partnership, we know we’ll also be doing so much more to help teachers and schools fundraise critical dollars to support students.”
Since its inception, the health. moves. minds. program has helped build kinder, healthier schools nationwide. Moving forward, health. moves. minds., powered by Booster will build on this foundation, continuing to incorporate critical life skills into physical activity lessons. Schools will receive at least 50% of the funds raised, with an additional percentage going back to the health and physical education teacher in the form of a Gopher gift card to support health and wellness in their school.
“For more than 20 years, Booster has helped thousands of schools across the country profit more than $600 million in much-needed funds,” said Booster CEO Chris Carneal. “We see this partnership as a way to bring our services to even more schools, and the opportunity to engage and reward health and physical education teachers as part of this expansion is a really wonderful bonus for us.”
In 2022-2023 alone, 2 million students participated in health. moves. minds. lessons and activities on kindness, mindfulness, empowerment and wellness. Teachers and administrators nationwide have praised health. moves. minds. for improving students’ mental health and overall well-being, as well as school culture.
“The levels of anxiety and the lack of self-regulation skills among students has never been higher,” said Angela Stark, a physical education teacher in Lexington, KY. “But the schools in our district that have implemented health. moves. minds. have seen a positive impact in helping students share their feelings and gain new skills in managing them. I’m excited to continue that while also seeing more money raised for the critical needs facing these schools.”
SHAPE America’s national partner Gopher believes the new partnership with Booster will be a positive one for health. moves. minds. “Gopher has long been a proud partner to SHAPE America and their health. moves. minds. program. From the very beginning, we loved the idea of creating an easy and effective fundraising program for health and PE teachers whose needs are often deprioritized in school budgets,” said Gopher Brand Director Jonathan Faloon. “It has been a rewarding experience to help get much-needed equipment and PE resources to these schools, and this new partnership provides the opportunity to get even more funds to more schools, more teachers, and — most importantly — more students.”
For more information about the health. moves. minds. program, visit healthmovesminds.org.