BATON ROUGE — East Baton Rouge Parish Councilman Darryl Hurst hosted a "Fitness Fest" at Glen Oaks High School on Tuesday, hoping that greater physical activity will lead to better grades and school attendance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that active students are better students.

"What we want to do is keep them active, keep them youthful and put them in things like sports that ensures that they don't stray away in a direction that we don't want them to go," Hurst said.

Hurst partnered with Travis Stewart, who is known as Coach Stew. Stewart is the owner of The Stew Compound Fitness  Gym, and set up multiple activities to get the kids moving.

"Today I set up a circuit. We did circuit training, so we did some jump rope, sit-ups, some hurdle jumps, some squats. Just some basic movement to get them moving and around," Stewart said.

The event also offered free food, $25 gift cards and breakout sessions where the students heard from Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and Southern University football coach Sean Wallace.

"We saw kids get out of their shell. A lot of time you see them texting. You don't see physical activity. What surprised me the most is that kids don't know how to jump rope," Hurst said.

Hurst and Stewart says they have one goal, to raise awareness about the importance of healthy living.

"It's important to be healthy. Lets start making fitness a lifestyle and not being intimidated by the gym because health is wealth and you only have one body," Stewart said.