NATCHEZ — Charm Powell did a lot of sitting on the bench when she was in high school. She was not the star of the varsity basketball team at Adams County Christian School or the fastest sprinter on the track. She was not the go-to athlete on the team.

Yet Powell carries the lessons she learned in those days with her each day of her career — a career that has led to her being named the 2008-2009 Mississippi Parent Teacher Association Educator of the Year.

Powell was selected from all of the teachers from across the state as a teacher who not only inspires her students but also is inspiring to and actively involved with parents.

As the physical education teacher for West Primary School, Powell has been teaching preschoolers, kindergartners and their families about the importance of exercise and healthy eating.

Since 1989, Powell has been fighting on the front lines of the battle against obesity in children — a battle that is very important in one of the nation’s fattest regions.

Working with the students and their parents, Powell continually stresses the importance of healthy eating, family exercise and turning off the television. She passes on the information to whoever will listen — from local PTA meetings to state conferences.

But it may be those lessons she learned sitting on the bench that Powell considers to be the key to children and exercise.

“Do what you love,” Powell said. “Don’t worry about being the star quarterback or the No. 1 player. It’s OK if you are not the best.”

The key to getting children hooked on exercise is helping them find the type of exercise they can be passionate about, Powell said.

“There is something out there that they can do,” Powell said. “If they find something they like now, they will do it for a lifetime. And that is the key.”

As the school physical education teacher, Powell tries to introduce a wide array of exercise opportunities from traditional activities like running and jogging to newer exercises like yoga and stretching.

“When I grew up there was no such thing,” Powell said.

There was just recess, Powell pointed out.

“The kids that could get out there did. The kids that felt insecure about their bodies stood and watched,” Powell said. “Eventually they talked themselves into believing that they couldn’t do it for the rest of their lives.”

That is why Powell thinks that finding the one sport that you love to do is so important — even as early as kindergarten.

“There are lots and lots of ways to exercise that don’t cost any money,” Powell said. “It has become a passion of mine to introduce as much as I can to these children.”

It’s a passion that inspires both the children and their parents, West Primary Principal Cindy Idom said.

“She walks the walk, and talks the talk,” Idom said.

Idom and last year’s West Primary PTA President Stephanie Bourke nominated Powell for her involvement with parents and children.

“She is on the top of early childhood health awareness,” Idom said.

Idom points to the many grants Powell has helped the school acquire from an Entergy grant that helped build the school’s tricycle track to a Health is Academic grant that has helped the school purchase healthy snacks and recess equipment.

Other recent grants include the 5-Star Healthy Food grant used to purchase a fruit slicer for the school’s cafeteria to a grant from Let’s Go Walking Mississippi.

Powell has also been instrumental in involving parents and students in various physical activities throughout the school year, from Field Day and Safety Day to Jump Rope for Heart and Relay for Life.

“I think our involvement in childhood obesity over the last five years is what stood out,” Powell said. “It is what set us apart.”

“As a nation, as a state, it is time for us to turn it around,” Powell said. “It is time for us to set the example.”