STUDENTS GET TIPS ON HEALTHY LIVING

Nearly 5,000 elementary, middle and junior-high-school students from Southeast Missouri cheered and shouted with delight during HealthSouth's Go For It! road show Thursday at the Show Me Center.

The event resembled everything from a rock concert to a sporting event, with audience aerobics thrown in for good measure. Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson and three other professional and Olympic athletes took center stage, advising the students to dare to be champions in the classroom and on the athletic field.

Former football player Steve DeOssie, who played for the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, told students to stay in school. "Stay away from drugs," he warned. "Make it a cool thing to do the right thing."Jackson urged the students to be successful in the classroom. "Don't quit on your education," the former pro football and baseball player said.

Other athletes delivered taped messages broadcast on large, overhead screens. The messages urged students to eat right, not smoke and stay away from drugs and gangs.

Professional wrestler Lex Luger delivered a taped message urging students to avoid steroids and drink milk. "If you want strong bones you'll drink your milk," he advised.

The sound-body-and-mind messages were delivered amid an atmosphere of high-tech fun featuring everything from laser lights and a circular, runway-style stage to Nickelodeon-style games. Large, inflatable balls representing everything from football to baseball hung down from the ceiling over the arena floor.

It took a full day to set up all the lighting, speakers and other equipment hauled in on four tractor-trailers. The traveling show has a permanent road crew of 35 to 40 people. Another 40 local stagehands are brought in for each show.

The hourlong program, geared for children in grades three through eight, involved dividing the audience into two teams -- the Green Lightning and the Purple Thunder. Teams of students participated in a number of games including running and climbing through an inflatable, blue and yellow obstacle course.

The audience answered multiple-choice trivia questions by holding up fingers to show the answers they chose.

Real, a four-female singing group from Orlando, Fla., kicked off the high-tempo show.

Teachers were called out of the stands to kick up their heels during one segment of the show.

All the rock music, laser lights and games weren't lost on students, who found plenty of reasons to stand up and cheer."It was good," said Santana Crone, a student at Sikeston Junior High School. She liked the show's dancers. Crone said the show's message to students was "don't do drugs."Greg Winkler, a third-grader at St. Vincent School in Perryville, felt the show's biggest message was for students to stay in school."I liked the laser show," he said.

Debbie Huber attended the show with her son, Eric, a third-grader at St. Vincent School in Perryville. "I enjoyed it," she said. Children, she said, pay attention to what professional athletes say.

Tammy Gray, an eighth-grader at Marquand School, liked all the dancing. "I thought it was really cool," she said.

Mitch Janis, a third-grader at Marquand, came away with a road show T-shirt. "It's so cool," he said, pointing out that Jackson handed him the shirt.

Phil Christian couldn't agree more. Christian is vice president of communications and marketing services for HealthSouth, based in Birmingham, Ala. HealthSouth and Coca-Cola sponsor the road show.

Christian said the road show is designed to help children make positive lifestyle decisions.

Said Christian, "Some of these messages are going to get through."