Glendale students get 'jam' on to set world exercise record

GLENDALE (KABC) -- Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Glendale was one of 30,000 schools all getting their jam on Thursday in the hopes of setting a world record.

"This is our third annual Jam World Record and our numbers today, we're over 1.6 million globally," said Patricia Friberg, JAM School leader.

Friberg said the idea came from a mom whose child wasn't getting enough exercise at school. She wanted to do something to change that.

Time-crunched schools welcomed the innovation.

"It keeps them healthy. It gets them out of their seat. It gets them active. It really makes them very happy to know that they're part of this," said Marine Avagyan, principal of Thomas Jefferson Elementary School.

At 10 a.m. all across the country, schools and organizations "jammed" together for a fabulous fitness minute or two.

"It's a start. It's just to get the blood flowing. It helps the brain. It helps you feel better. So the whole goal is just to get people to be active," JAM School leader Rufus Dorsey said.

Dorsey, a trainer, has diabetes and wanted to relate to kids how important movement can be.

"You have to take baby steps. You have to crawl before you walk. So this is a great way for people just to get up, get moving and it only takes one minute," Dorsey said.

Eyewitness News was there at the launch of the JAM School Program in 2008. Since then, teachers and administrators say they use the program to get kids up and awake for school or sometimes during an assembly or frustrating lesson.

"I needed to find a way to get the kids kind of moving in the middle of the day," teacher Regina West said.

West has been getting her "jam" on for four years and say's it works like a charm.

"Oh, they're ready to calm down and get right to work," West said.

The concept is as easy as the moves that are offered free on the JAM School Program website.