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SMART Bus Teaches Elementary School Students About Healthy Living

Every Wednesday, the SMART Bus pays a special visit to elementary school students in Lakeside. Onboard sits 11 computer stations, where students participate in interactive lessons centered around living a healthy life.

"We partner with Orlando health and advent health to provide the kids with the healthy snack packs so everything kind of revolves around the healthy choices," said Jessica, the teacher on board the SMART bus.

During Ms. interactive lesson, students head to the back of the bus to measure their height and record their weight before receiving a bag full of healthy snacks.

Leslie Campbell from the school district's special programs department says the idea for the SMART Bus came from two Celebration High School students.

"There were two high school brothers at Celebration High School, and they were working on a senior project. Their dad was in the IT business. They went out on Craigslist and bought a $6,000 bus and they kind of rehabbed it, and they put rehab computers in it, and then they went to the Star Motel on 192 to help kids with homework."

Due to the pandemic, the bus no longer stops at hotels along 192. Instead, it visits afterschool programs put on by the city of Kissimmee's Parks and Recreation Department. Campbell is working on expanding the location list for the 2021-2022 school year.

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