Arlington Kids Visit White House, Meet First Lady

ARLINGTON, Va. – Seventeen Arlington campers, ages 8 to 11, joined First Lady Michele Obama at the White House on Tuesday to celebrate the first anniversary of the Let’s Move Drink Up campaign.  The Drink Up initiative encourages Americans to drink more water, more often.

The kids were part of the Carver Community Center Summer Expedition Camp.  Many of them also take part in Arlington County’s Kids in Action after school program. Both of these programs, which are coordinated through the Department of Parks and Recreation, focus on fun, safe and enriching options for children that also include healthy snacks, active programming and opportunities to help children learn to make healthy diet and activity choices.

“Meeting the First Lady made the message of drinking water and living a healthy lifestyle resonate with our campers in a life altering way,” said Jane Rudolph, Arlington’s director of parks and recreation. “We work hard to be healthy role models to our campers and create an environment that makes the healthy choice the easy choice, but being at the White House took it to another level!”

The Arlington campers were joined by children from a Washington, DC YMCA on the White House's South Lawn in front of a 60-foot by 43-foot water droplet composed of 2,000 blue "Drink Up" water bottles and met Mrs. Obama. Obama used the opportunity to encourage people to drink more water from the tap, water fountain or bottle.