Augie In Action! Augie In Action! - Ihrsa

| CBI Interview |
CBI: Educating children is clearly
another one of your priorities. It’s
the primary focus of HealthCorps,
one of your philanthropic interests.
MO: Yes, it is. I’ve been involved with a
number of national panels on childhood
obesity, and I come back from them very
dismayed because, while we know what
we want to say, we don’t know how to say
it to kids.
But if I can get a college graduate,
someone who’s hip and has some attitude,
who’s been taught how to teach
others about health issues… if I can get
someone who’s just a few years older
than the students to sit in a schoolroom
and be their big brother—then
we can get the message across to
them. What’s the message? Sensible
eating, regular exercise—those are
the two basic fundamentals.
That’s what HealthCorps is all
about, giving kids good mentors to
provide them with sound information.
54 Club Business International | MARCH 2008 | www.ihrsa.org
We’ve developed robust teaching
plans, specific homework items, and,
even, activist programs. You can check
them out at www.healthcorps.org.
CBI: We understand that you’ve
been able to forge partnerships
with schools in New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Florida.
MO: New York is our biggest state and a
good example. We’ve received several
million dollars from the New York City
Council, and match all of the money
that we get from the city and state. A
lot of the money we raise for the program
comes from private individuals.
I should point out that there’s nothing
at all proprietary—no copyrights or
patents—about this. We take no ownership
of the program. We’ll do the training
for you, but, basically, what we’re really
saying is, “Take what you want! Just take
it and use it!”
CBI: We’ve heard you’re familiar
with the program that Geoff Dyer,
the head of Lifestyle Family Fitness,
the Florida-based chain, has
implemented to introduce teens,
free of charge, to club services.
What do you think about it?
MO: What a great idea! It’s sort of like
City Harvest, a program here in New
York that collects unused food from
restaurants and distributes it to the
poor. Geoff’s idea is brilliant in that it
takes unused resources and reallocates
them. You don’t have to build new clubs
or new infrastructure—everything is
already there. You have unused weight
machines … and you have kids—just
put them together. It’s perfect!
CBI: You did your undergraduate
work at Harvard, but, afterward,
attended a joint MD/MBA program
at the University of Pennsylvania