Hi, everybody.  Yay（哇） , we’re here, we’re doing it!  (Applause.)  It’s so exciting.  I am thrilled.  I have been waiting for this day for a long, long time, and it is finally here.  And I want to thank you all for being here and for hosting us.

As you know, my other partner, the President, was supposed to be here with us, but he had some other stuff going on.  He sends his regrets.  He would -- trust me, he would rather be here.  (Laughter.)  But this is an important issue, and we didn’t want to postpone（推迟，延期） it.  So hopefully I will be a satisfactory substitution（代替，置换） .  (Applause.)

I want to start by first thanking Amy for just being a fabulously（难以置信地，惊人地） amazing middle-schooler and for her wonderful introduction.  Thank you, Amy.  Great job.  (Applause.)

And I have to thank our co-chairs of the President’s Council -- Dominique Dawes, who has just been a terrific support to this White House and to these issues.  She’s just a fabulous woman and just so eloquent（意味深长的，雄辩的） and poised（镇定的） .  We are just thrilled to have her.  And our other co-chair Drew Brees, who, you know, what do you say about Drew Brees, except we’re so lucky to have him as a part of this.  He regrets that he couldn’t be here.

But we are so grateful to Dominique and to Drew, and also to the executive director of the Council, Shellie Pfohl.  Shellie, I know you’re out here.  Everybody should know Shellie.  She’s there in the fuchsia.  (Applause.)

To all the Council members who have taken the time not just to participate on this Council but to come here today, it’s going to mean so much to kids across the country to see world-class athletes and chefs and trainers and experts just coming together for the entire issue of making sure that our kids are healthy.  So I am personally grateful for your willingness to be a part of this, and thank you so much for your time.

I also want to recognize our mayor here in Washington, D.C., Mayor Fenty, who just got here.  There he is.  Thank you, Mr. Mayor.  (Applause.)  This is an appropriate event for him to be at, because he’s a jock（运动员） .  (Laughter.)  Yeah, yeah.  So he’s somebody who lives the message.  And we’re grateful for your support and your role modeling of the issue.  Thank you, sir.

And we also have Congressman John Sarbanes here as well.  Congressman, there you are.  (Applause.)  Thank you so much for your support on this issue.

It is great to be here at the Columbia Heights Educational Campus.  (Applause.)  This is a beautiful facility, very impressive.  You drive into a parking lot, and it doesn’t look like a school.  I’m impressed, it looks very, very good.  And I got a chance to meet your outstanding principal -- (applause) -- Maria Tukeva.  Where are you, Principal?  (Applause.)  And I understand she’s also the founder of -- yes, yes.  Thank you for creating one of the top high schools in the country right here in Washington, D.C.  (Applause.)  Well done, well done.

And of course, I want to thank all the students from the Lincoln Multicultural（多元文化的） Middle School -- where are my students?  (Applause.)  Thank you all for joining us.

I sort of tried to get in my gear -- I’m going to try and do a few things with you.  I got on flat shoes today.  But I’m going to do my best.

Today we’re here to talk about an issue that is so close to my heart as First Lady, but also as a mom.  And it’s an issue that’s of importance to all of us -- eating right, staying active, and giving our kids the bright future that they deserve.

And right now, we can be doing better by our kids, because one in three of our children is either overweight or obese（肥胖的） in this country.  And doctors are seeing more and more children with health problems related to obesity -- high blood pressure, high cholesterol（胆固醇） , Type II diabetes（糖尿病） -- and these used to be diseases that we would only see in adults, but now they’re becoming a regular part of a pediatrician（儿科医师） ’s practice.

And every year, as a result of these conditions, we’re spending billions of dollars on treating obesity-related conditions, and we can’t afford to keep going down this road.  We can’t afford it for our young people, and we can’t afford it as a nation.

That’s why, earlier this year, we started this wonderful nationwide initiative（主动权，首创精神） that we’ve called “Let’s Move.”  (Applause.)  Yay for “Let’s Move”.  And it’s an initiative that has been designed and worked on by so many partners all across the country.  People have been fabulous about this issue.  But our goal is to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation.  We are making this a big, huge generational goal -- with the notion that kids born today are going to have a different idea of what it means to be healthy, so that they grow up at a healthy weight, with good habits, that they can then teach the generations that follow.

But one key to getting this done and solving this problem is passing a strong child nutrition（营养） bill.  And I can’t emphasize（强调，着重） this more -– this bill controls the programs that provide school lunches to kids all across the country.  And what we do know is that our kids are getting most of their activity, most of their nutrition at school.  So if we can do something to improve the quality of food in our schools, we’re going to go a long way to affecting the futures of our children.  And right now, that bill is making its way through Congress with what I’m proud to hear is strong bipartisan（两党连立的） support.

This is an issue that everyone is getting behind because it’s not about politics, it’s about our kids.  A majority of senators and House members from both parties have publicly called for swift passage of a strong proposal.  So, once again, I urge Congress to provide the resources that we’re going to need to support these important programs that will be able to help change our children’s futures and those after that.  This is an important time.  So we’re looking forward to the Congress getting this done.

But you all know back when we were kids -- and I’m talking to the grown folks here -- being healthy wasn’t that hard.  It just wasn’t that hard.  Parents, particularly in the summer, could just open up their back door, send the kids out, give them a little breakfast and tell them, go away and don’t come back until we’re ready to see you again.  (Laughter.)  And you might run in for a second if you were a kid and grab a little lunch, right?  But you weren’t watching the TV.  You had to get up and get back out.

And you usually wouldn’t even come home until dinner, and you wouldn’t even want to come home for dinner, because you were having so much fun running around.  You had to be forced to sit down and eat a meal.  And the meals that we got were generally pretty healthy, because they were usually cooked at home with a whole lot of loving care and fresh products and produce.

Today we’ve got so many distractions（分心，干扰） -- we’ve got video games, we’ve got computers -- that are just keeping kids inside after school.  The whole culture of our society has changed.  During the summer, a lot of times this is what kids are doing.  And some folks are living in neighborhoods where they can’t go outside, it’s not safe to open up that door and let your kids run forever.