The kids at First Street Elementary School received a brand-new facility that looks like a playground, but is actually designed to help them combat childhood obesity, an ever-growing problem with America’s youth.

“It’s amazing how hopping on one bar a little bit can make you feel places you haven’t worked out in a while,” said Cindy Snodgrass, a fifth-grade teacher and the writer of the grant that funded the equipment.

“I’m just excited,” said Principal Rubén Ayala. “This is really going to benefit the kids.”

The equipment was provided by Project Fit America, a charity organization formed in 1990 for donating equipment and training to schools in order to get kids fit.

Childhood obesity has tripled since 1980, according to www.projectfitamerica.org — and this is the first generation where the children are less fit than their parents.

The grant, sponsored by Sutter Roseville Medical Center and Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital, provided indoor and outdoor equipment to First Street and also included training sessions for teachers, as well as classroom curriculum.

“It is an honor for us to be the sponsor of this program and this equipment,” said Liz Honeycutt, the coordinator for Sutter’s School Hospital Outreach Program.

This equipment will help First Street kids stay fit, which not only has the obvious health benefits, but gives them better self confidence as well as better focus in the classroom, Ayala said.

“(My students) are very excited about this,” Snodgrass said.

Though the new facility, which used to be a vacant spot of grass and dirt, looks like a playground, it’s much more than that. The equipment was specially designed to work for young kids, as well as older ones.

The outdoor equipment First Street received consists of a horizontal ladder, parallel bars, vertical poles for climbing, a vault bar, a step test station and pull-up bars. And don’t forget the hula hoops. Unlike the popular toy, the new hoops at First Street are weighted, and can help trim inches off an oversize waist in just a few weeks of use.

How much the kids will enjoy the equipment was evident after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, when some of Snodgrass’ fifth-graders demonstrated the various uses. While a couple exhibited fierce determination, most wore smiles.

First Street is not the only school in the Western Placer Unified School District to receive the new equipment, with Glen Edwards Middle School and Twelve Bridges Elementary School both kicking off their programs last year.

“The middle-schoolers really like them and getting them to like anything is hard,” Ayala said with a laugh.