As the winner of both Ophea’s Outstanding New Professional Award and Physical Health & Education Canada’s Young Professional Award, Robin Glenney has already demonstrated her dedication and commitment to her profession. In just three years as a physical education and science teacher in a remote Northern Ontario community, Glenney has taken her passion for instilling the value of healthy active living among her students to the next level. From coordinating activities including a pedometer running program for young women to organizing self-defense classes, Glenney has tirelessly worked to provide her students with enriched and meaningful experiences. Through her advocacy work with the Ministry of Education Glenney shares her extensive knowledge of the Ontario Health and Physical Education Curriculum by contributing to the development of meaningful curriculum support materials. While she is new to the field, Glenney continues to make notable contributions to education, most recently to teach at an African based secondary school.

For more than a decade Russ Minnis has been a valuable leader in assisting Ophea’s commitment toward building relationships with French-language school boards. As an advisor, Minnis has provided critical insight into the development of quality Ophea Health and Physical Education supports for the francophone community. “Every child in the province should have the same learning opportunities, regardless of language,” shares Minnis. With his dedication to increasing physical activity levels in children and youth, Minnis achieved ultimate success when his school board created a part-time Health and Physical Education consultant position in an ongoing effort to provide teachers with quality health and physical education support and training. When it comes to future development of initiatives Minnis strongly believes that “both systems can only profit when educators, school boards and community organizations work together,” adding that ongoing teamwork between speakers of both languages is the key to developing high quality provincial resources.

From conception to implementation, the York Region District School Board has been a key leader in the advancement and development of healthy, active lifestyles for all residents of York Region. Using a comprehensive approach to school health, the board has developed strong partnerships at the local, regional and provincial levels harnessing the full potential of the broader school community.  From students and staff to municipal recreation departments and business leaders, residents of York Region are shouldering the responsibility of creating health schools together.  With the implementation of Policy #218-Healthy Schools and Workplaces, the York Region District School Board has established a solid foundation for creating a community commitment to healthy living in the years ahead. According to Julie Anderson, Curriculum Consultant for the York Region District School Board, it is because of policies like this that students across the region are taking on an active role in delivering the healthy living message to their families and friends.

Ophea’s Award of Distinction

For over 25 years Anthony Petitti has been a Health and Physical Education leader with Toronto Catholic District School Board. With a commitment to engaging youth to take responsibility for their own health and physical education, Petitti empowers students to contribute to building their own positive health relationships. “I believed deeply that providing students with opportunities to be physically active, to learn relevant health curriculum, to make good lifestyle choices in a healthy environment was central to my role,” shares Pettiti. As a long standing member of OASPHE, Petitti has been a vocal member of the Healthy Schools initiative by supporting ongoing professional development activities. Central to Petitti’s contributions has been his facilitation of the establishment of a central school board public health unit committee focused on increasing Health Action Teams within more than 100 schools across the board. As an advocate Petitti continues to spread the healthy active living message within our communities through presentations at conferences and educational opportunities in addition to being a regular contributor to multiple curriculum resources.