Get kids moving: Their lives depend on it.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Ron Gibbs For The Register-Guard

For the past half century, Emerald Kidsports has promoted the benefits of organized youth sports.

Organizations such as ours provide young people with a safe place to belong, and a place where they know that they matter. We provide a wholesome environment for having fun and making friends while developing in body and mind. Young athletes develop lifelong skills and values such as goal-setting, responsibility, hard work, organization, discipline and concentration. And by playing on a team, kids develop essential social skills such as cooperation, team building, sportsmanship and a sense of fair play.

But now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has weighed in with another profound benefit of youth sports: It's a matter of life or death. The CDC reports that excess weight and obesity soon may cause as much preventable disease and death as cigarette smoking. In fact, a recent study shows that because of obesity, children today may have a shorter life expectancy than their parents for the first time in a century.

Childhood obesity has tripled in the past 30 years. And because an estimated 80 percent of overweight adolescents become obese adults, the implications of childhood obesity for the nation's health are huge. Excess weight and obesity contribute to diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers, as well as depression, low self-esteem and social discrimination.

We're all aware of the causes of this emerging epidemic. Lack of physical education programs in schools, poor eating habits and increased time in front of television, computers and video games all help pack the pounds on our young people. Quite simply, they're taking in far more calories than they're burning off. To save lives and millions of dollars in health care costs, we need to shake off the sedentary lifestyle that has become so prevalent in America.

The World Health Organization reports that regular physical activity and sports help achieve many direct and indirect health gains in young people through their positive effect on major health risks, including high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, obesity and stress.

In addition, properly guided physical activity and sports foster other healthy behaviors, including avoidance of tobacco, alcohol, drugs and violence as well as adoption of healthy diet, adequate rest and better safety practices. To drive this message home, WHO is promoting a global observance of Move For Health Day this month to encourage physical activity among young people.

In the Eugene-Springfield area, we'll observe the event on Saturday during a communitywide Celebration of Sports, organized by Emerald Kidsports in partnership with the University of Oregon Athletic Department, Nike, the city of Eugene and Cumulus Broadcasting. As part of the celebration, a free Sports & Fitness Expo will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Moshofsky Center at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.

The event will feature all our community has to offer to tempt even the most lethargic sofa spuds.

I hope you'll join your neighbors at the Sports & Fitness Expo to discover the tremendous resources our community offers for fun and fitness. We then can spend the upcoming sunny months with our families playing on sports teams, biking or skating on riverside paths, learning new sports skills through parks and recreation classes, hiking nearby trails or taking group exercise classes. (Research shows that a variety of physical activity is most effective to keep interest and enjoyment high.) And in the process of having fun together in physical activity, we can experience the pleasure of regular exercise and incorporate it as part of our daily lives.

Teaching healthy behaviors to youngsters is essential because, as most adults can attest, change becomes harder with age. By demonstrating healthy habits such as good nutrition and regular physical exercise, we can help establish a lifestyle of fitness for our children, and for ourselves as well. It's time to get moving!

Ron Gibbs is the executive director of Emerald Kidsports.