Matt Stover Foundation Endows
Johns Hopkins Childrens Center

February 23, 2006- Baltimore, Maryland

The Matt Stover Foundation presented the Johns Hopkins Children"s Center with a donation to help fund their Youth Fitness Circle program. Matt Stover was on hand to present the award while volunteering at the JHCC's Annual Radiothon.Fundraiser. The occasion also marked Stover's sixth consecutive year volunteering for the Radiothon.

Johns Hopkins Children's Center's Youth Fitness Circle is one of the most important medical problems in the United States today is pediatric obesity. Currently, at least one in five children and adolescents is overweight. This is a two-fold increase in the last twenty years and youth of color residing in the inner city are disproportionately affected. The community served by the program is greatly affected by parental substance abuse and HIV, extreme poverty, adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease infection, poor academic achievement, and neighborhood violence.

The problem of adolescent obesity and early onset of complications, such as Type II Diabetes Mellitus, was recognized by the adolescent section of the Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine several years ago. The Johns Hopkins Children's Center's Youth Fitness Circle for overweight adolescents was developed to address the growing need for intervention among Baltimore's youth. This program is unique in that it provides comprehensive services to the youth without the significant fees charged by other programs throughout the country.