LANDSTUHL, Germany — Getting a gymnasium full of middle school students fired up about drinking milk is a tall order.
Jill Jayne, the self-billed “Rockstar Nutritionist,” made it look easy this past week at Landstuhl Elementary-Middle School.
The registered dietitian and musician from Pittsburgh, had a crowd of fifth- to eighth-graders, along with their teachers, dancing a silly jig and singing about bone health.
The students ate it up.
Earlier in the morning, Jayne performed her “Jump for Jill” show for the elementary school. After each performance, the students pursued her for autographs: She signed scraps of paper, a notebook and a lunch box, but turned down requests to sign clothing.
“It was awesome,” said fourth-graders Monica Lawson and Briana Kohl, in unison.
Jayne brought her nutrition rock show to about half a dozen Department of Defense Dependents Schools in Germany this week, marking the first time Jayne and her entourage have performed at U.S. military schools overseas, according to her communications manager and brother, Mark Jayne.
Stateside, Jayne has performed about 750 times for 170,000 kids, according to a news release about her show.
Southampton Intermediate School brought back Jill Jayne for a “rockin” healthy time. She has been working with our school and students on her promotional tour to help students become aware of the media and the unhealthy and unrealistic propaganda they present to them. ” I Will Not be Bought”, is a national campaign to help children be savvy about what is being sold to them and what they purchase.
On March 17th, I went green with Fuel Up to Play 60 Georgia state winner, Lovinggood Middle School. Joined by their teaching staff dressed as cows, the USDA, and the ladies of the Weight Management Dietetic Practice Group, students dedicated their day to planting gardens and celebrating Calcium with a performance from the Rockstar Nutritionist. Food and Nutrition Services Supervisor, Cindy Culver, hosts this video to showcase the day.
Rocking Lovinggood Middle School in Atlanta, GA on St Patrick’s Day! The day before their big conference, dietitians from the Weight Management Dietetic Practice Group volunteered to plant a garden at this school, culminating with a show by the Rockstar Nutritionist. WMDPG chose Lovinggood because they are the recent Fuel Up to Play 60 state winner. I performed for my fellow dietitians, district superindendants, four USDA personnel, Southwest Dairy Council reps, and the Lovinggood 7th Grade. Tomorrow I keynote for the WMDPG Symposium, Weight Management: A Lifelong Experience, at the InterContinental Hotel in Atlanta. More info here: http://notetohealth.com/onthebeat/2011/03/15/symposium-features-rockstar-nutritionist-keynote-sharing-evidence-lightens-a-heavy-topic/
This February, I returned to Wisconsin for a very exciting two weeks of rock ‘n roll nutrition shows. My stops included a wide variety of students and climates. I performed the Jump with Jill show in the metro area of Green Bay in Green Bay Public Schools and traveled to remote areas of Wisconsin like Tomahawk where they don’t plow the roads, they take snow mobiles! Even the student parking lot is set up with parking spaces for these fine beasts. While my hometown of Pittsburgh was pounded with two feet of snow that closed schools for two weeks, it was negative eleven degrees in Tomahawk. PE Teacher Amanda Cushman, recipient of the wonderful Carol White PE grant, explained, “We don’t cancel school until it’s negative thirty.” THE most amazing thing about the smaller towns of Wisconsin were the lack of chain restaurants. The downtown’s looked like the 1950′s– what my hometown should look like now behind all the boards– where people shop at each others stores and eat together.
I performed on two Indian Reservations this trip, including a return to the Oneida Reservation and a new stop at the Menominee Reservation. In the video, you’ll see students counting with me in their native language during the Beat of the Body for Jump with Jill, and showing me their tribal dance at the end of I Will Not Be Bought.
I spoke to nutrition students at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and future teachers at a small private school called St. Norbert College, where they treated us to homemade soup and salad.
We made the news on Mardi Gras, and you can watch me here in my beads, mask, and tri-color outfit.
Wishing you a healthy holiday & fruitful New Year!
Thank you for making 2009 such an exciting year!! I just returned from spending 2 weeks of my normally frigid December in Florida, where I performed Jump with Jill and I Will Not Be Bought for audiences in Miami, Orlando, Palm Beach, and Port Charlotte. My body was in total shock from the high temperatures and humidity. I walked around town in flip flops while Christmas carols played and shoppers bustled to get their last minute holiday gifts. It just felt like the wrong time of year to be so festive! I loved this picture with the palm tree in front of the Christmas tree in South Beach, Miami.
Jill Jayne, MS, RD, Rockstar Nutritionist, meshes her credentials as a dietitian and her experience as a musician to teach nutrition through entertainment. As President and Creative Director of Note to Health, Jayne creates interactive programming that fuses health education with music.
