On Saturday, October 25, 2014, youth from Live Light, Live Right visited the Brownsville Recreation Center to participate in the ‘KO Program,’ a local boxing initiative aimed at combating the obesity epidemic. The obesity epidemic is a crisis in poor communities like Brownsville, Brooklyn, where two-thirds of children ages 5 to 11 are overweight.
Brooklyn based charity, Knockout Obesity, developed the ‘KO Program’ to help community centers with after school programs, like the Brownsville Recreation Center, to keep their kids moving. Charity founder and Brooklyn restaurateur, Dimitrios Verteouris, spearheaded the class of 32 youth alongside professional boxer, Gary Stark, Jr. For 50 minutes, the participants were run through a rigorous combination of calisthenics and boxing drills, followed by a 10 minute cool down period and nutrition lesson. The children smiled and laughed, which showed how much fun they had during the program.
