San Diego

San Diego Teacher Awarded for His Work to Keep Community Active

Morse High School teacher Nasara Gargonnu recognized as a local health champion

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Husband, father, P.E. teacher, fitness instructor. That is how Nasara Gargonnu describes himself. An inspiration to the community is how the County of San Diego's Health Services Advisory Board describes him.

Gargonnnu was recently awarded the 2020 Health Services Advisory Board’s Community Inspiration Award. He's a physical education teacher at Morse High School, a popular fitness instructor at the YMCA, a leader for Black Men Run San Diego, and a very familiar face at local runs warming up the crowds, it is no doubt fitness is his life.

"It has always been a dream of mine to work with kids," Gargonnu said. "Teaching kids how to eat right, how to workout, how to exercise, how to keep yourself healthy."

After joing the Navy in 1988, Gargonnu found himself in San Diego. The New York native says without the military he wouldn't have come out here at all.

After leaving the Navy, he found a love for fitness and wanted to find a way to merge the two together. At the end of the school day, Gargonnu leads the after-school program "Just Keep Livin" which finds different ways to expose kids to new and different things.

Gargonnu wants people to get out and move to help build their immune systems.

"I want people to get out there and move and be active and eat right and build up their immune system and be strong so we can battle this," Gargonnu said.

The HSAB Community Inspiration Award honors people and small community organizations that make powerful contributions that improve people's health and wellbeing.

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