The two local Y groups got the lion's share of the $4.5 million total awarded to just 10 YMCA associations across the United States.

Allocated by the U.S. Department of Education, the funds are to be used to "initiate, expand and/or improve physical education programs, including after-school activities, to help students from kindergarten through 12th grade make progress toward meeting state standards for physical education." said Mary Hoshiko, vice president of program and community development for the YMCA of Santa Clara Valley said, "Both of our associations are very excited about this award."

The Santa Clara and Mid-Peninsula Y's decided to apply jointly Hoshiko said, because "we're working on an alliance so we can share resources. Together we can cover the entire Santa Clara County."

The Santa Clara Valley Y, headquartered on The Alameda, extends to Morgan Hill in the south and up through Sunnyvale and Cupertino to the north. The Santa Teresa YMCA serves the Almaden and Blossom Valleys. The Mid-Peninsula Y coverage starts in Mountain View and goes north through San Mateo County.

In Willow Glen, both Booksin Elementary and Willow Glen Middle schools will benefit from the grant. Both schools currently have Y-staffed childcare centers that will now incorporate nutrition and fitness into their programs at least three days a week, said Tina Bernal, associate executive director at the Santa Clara Valley Y.

At Booksin, the Y currently offers licensed childcare both before and after-school for a fee. Serving nearly 100 children, the Y's staff of 10 will begin training for the new programs in January. Staffers will implement the program by Feb. 1.

The Y has recently taken over Willow Glen Middle School's after-school program, which is city and state funded and free to students. With only 10 students when the program began in September, Bernal said the program now has more than 60 students. The school will begin to use federal grant money in the 2005-06 school year.

The challenge, Bernal said, is making physical fitness and healthy eating habits fun for children and preteens, particularly as the nation grapples with an obesity epidemic. At Booksin, Bernal hopes to solidify these lessons by implementing a monthly "family fun night," so that children and their parents can learn activities together.

Programs across the county will mirror Booksin Elementary and Willow Glen Middle schools.

The money will be used in several different areas and will be part of the "Y Healthy U Project," Hoshiko said. "The main area is our childcare and after-school programs. We already work with these kids five days a week for the 180 school days each year, so we'll use these programs as a vehicle to deliver a program in health and fitness and nutrition."

Hoshiko adds, "We'll involve the families in this project. We'll have family events, we'll send recipes home and encourage families to cook together, to grocery shop together and to get fit together."

That program, which has already started, will serve 3,500 students each year for the next three years.

The program will also involve working with the Santa Clara County Office of Education. The two will co-sponsor a summer institute to train 30 teachers the second year and 30 more the third year to deliver a physical education and nutrition curriculum in their classrooms.

"The idea is each school will have a teacher champion to work with their colleagues to integrate an intentional health and wellness curriculum during the regular school day," Hoshiko said.

The third element of the program will focus on the 1,600 students who are now part of the eight YMCA branches with Teen Centers.

"Every one of our branches has a teen advisory council," Hoshiko said.

"The teens will tell us what they want to do to get active and the grant will fund those activities," she said. "We anticipate it will be different throughout the county. Some may want hip hop or folklorico dancing and some may want a backpacking or hiking club and we'll have the funds to create it for them."

This is the first time the Y's have applied for a White grant, Hoshiko said, and she's not sure why their grant is so large in comparison to others. Hoshiko said the organizations applied for the maximum of $500,000 for each of the three years.

White, the woman the program is named in honor of, was a longtime aide to Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska.

She worked on moving the Physical Education for Progress Act legislation forward. In 2001, the program enacted by the legislation was renamed in her honor.

Hoshiko is hopeful the grant programs will have lasting impact on those they reach.

"If we can influence them young, they'll develop life-long habits and reverse the trend toward obesity in our area," she said.

For additional information on the YMCA of Santa Clara Valley, visit www.scvymca.org

Staff writer Alicia Upano contributed to the story.