Albany Watch

   After holding a press conference today on a proposal to require that restaurants post calories on menus, Gov. David Paterson and First Lady Michelle Paige Paterson took part in another activity in their campaign to fight obesity. They hosted a luncheon for children who participated in the first lady’s “Healthy Steps to Albany” challenge. 

   Nearly 270 classes from Yonkers, Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany logged more than 1.4 billion steps during the six-week program. (It would take one person 27 years of continuous walking to match that.) Yonkers, Syracuse and Albany participants were at today’s event. (The governor and first lady were in Buffalo to meet with the Buffalo and Rochester kids last week.) Besides hobnobbing with the governor and first lady, a runner for more than 32 years, and getting a tour of the Executive Mansion, each child received a new pair of sneakers.

   The kids counted their steps in activities like bicycling, doing yard work, washing cars and playing kickball. (They weren’t allowed to count gym class.) They received a certain number of points for eating fruits and vegetables.

    Three classes from three different middle schools in Yonkers were at the event. These are their stats:

  —Family School 32, Team 6S, sixth grade, 60,606,098 steps;

  —Robert C. Dodson School, Hi-Tops, seventh grade, 25,544,830 steps;

  —Paideia School 15, The Amino Acids, 8th grade, 75,116,866 steps.

   “I was really bored” before the program started, said Angel Blanco, 13, who is on The Amino Acids team. For the Healthy Steps competition, he would spend an hour jumping rope. He plans to continue the exercise, he said.

   Teammate Mary DeMascio, 14, said she visited a nursing home and accumulated some steps by pushing residents in their wheelchairs.

   Greg DuSablon, their teacher, said they would do things like bring grapes into class and score points that way.

   For the record, lunch consisted of fruit and a chicken and roasted vegetable wrap, and a choice of juices, cherry tea or water with an orange slice. A small dessert bag included a brownie, oatmeal cookie and shortbread cookie with toffee, and a fruit salad was also served.

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