Texas Border Business –
Mario Reyna, Health and Physical Education Coordinator for McAllen Independent School District, will be inducted into a national Hall of Fame for exercise and health in April.
SHAPE America (Society of Health and Physical Educators) selected Reyna for his impressive contributions to the health and physical education profession. SHAPE America will bestow the honor at the organization’s Hall of Fame Banquet on Friday, April 8, at its 131st SHAPE America National Convention & Expo in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
SHAPE America’s Hall of Fame awards are given to honor outstanding individuals who: 1) make significant contributions to maintaining sport, physical education and physical activity as an integral part of the total education program; 2) further the image of sport and healthy physical activity for all; 3) accentuate the integral relationships of sport, motor development and physical activity to the total educational process; 4) encourage involvement in meaningful competitive sport or physical activity programs by influential educators and citizens in all walks of life; and 5) symbolize the educational and developmental potential of physical education and sport.
Past Hall of Fame inductees include golfer Annika Sorenstam, Basketball Coach Pat Summitt, tennis greats Billie Jean King and the late Arthur Ashe, NFL Hall of Famers Nick Buoniconti and Anthony Munoz; Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D., founder of The Cooper Institute; and, Olympians Tony DiCicco, Dick Fosbury, Rulon Gardner, Nancy Hogshead, Dan Jansen, Rafer Johnson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Wilma Rudolph and Peter Vidmar.
“For your many contributions to increasing all of your students’ physical activity levels throughout the McAllen Independent School District and for the national recognition you have brought your school district, Mario Reyna truly deserves this prestigious honor,” SHAPE America President Stephen Jefferies wrote in a congratulatory letter.
McAllen ISD has earned multiple national honors for its efforts to improve child health and nutrition. This includes having all 32 of its eligible schools achieve recognized status under Let’s Move! Active Schools in 2014 and 2015. Then, in August, 2015, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation recognized the district for having all 32 of its eligible schools earn the 2015 National Healthy Schools Bronze Award, making the district (at nearly 25,000 students) the largest school district in the nation to receive that award. Last fall, five district schools, the most of any school district in the state, were recognized as Exemplary Schools in health and physical education by the Texas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (TAHPERD). TBB
