NATCHEZ — Frazier Elementary School students will be taking a step toward improving their fitness this week, with a little help from Blue Cross’s Project Fit America.

At 10:30 a.m. Thursday, the school will officially unveil new fitness equipment near the school’s playground, the result of a Blue Cross Blue Shield Mississippi Fitness Program grant.

Project Fit America is designed to align with the state-mandated policy that requires student have 150 minutes of physical activity each week. Frazier Principal Cynthia Lamkin said it adds a new aspect the school’s preexisting program.

“It’s like a supplement to what they’re already doing, because they do a lot with team sports like intramural things, and this adds a different type of equipment for physical activity,” Lamkin said.

To get the $26,635 grant, the school had to send in pictures of its facilities, where certain equipment would go, what parts of the campus would be used and how it would be integrated into the curriculum.

As a result of the grant, the school received indoor and outdoor P.E. equipment, training for teachers, curricula and lesson plan support supplies.

Project Fit trainers also trained the school’s coaches on how to use the equipment, Lamkin said. Soon after, the coaches began training students.

And, on the day of the ribbon cutting, students will have a chance to show what they know.

“We’ll have some students out there who have been trained on the equipment and they’ll demonstrate the use of the equipment,” Lamkin said.

Lamkin said the new equipment would add to children’s health and wellness, as would the teachers monitoring students’ weight and body mass index as part of the program.

“The children need to get out and exercise and I think programs like Project Fit, they provide that,” Lamkin said.