When Auja Ravenel's mother told her that she had to go to a fitness program, called Louie's Kids Fit Club, at the beginning of the summer for four months, Auja thought she was being punished.

"She wanted to stay at home, watch TV and eat cookies," says her mom, Tara Heyward, of Auja's idea of the perfect summer.

Now that Fit Club is over, however, the Mitchell Elementary sixth-grader says she's "sad," but she also is a different person.

That's because when she started, Auja weighed nearly 270 pounds, didn't have the confidence to talk to anyone and basically spent her free time watching TV and eating junk food. She also had high blood pressure and was considered in the early stages of diabetes.

But today, the future for Auja and the dozen of other students in Fit Club is looking brighter.

Auja has cut out soft drinks and fried food, exercises five to six days a week, lost 30 pounds, run for class president and has started playing the clarinet in the band again, something she gave up in the third grade.

"It's easier for me to do stuff," says Auja. "I'm more comfortable around people, and it's easier to meet people now."

She and her fellow club members still have a long way to go, but now they are armed with valuable tools to lead more healthy, confident lives.

Fit Club is an initiative started by Louie's Kids, a Charleston-based nonprofit serving economically disadvantaged children who are obese.

Louie's Kids founder Louis Yuhasz says the Fit Club concept marks an evolution of the organization's programming, which for seven years has focused on sending children to out-of-town camps that provided intensive therapy. The cost was about $5,000 per child for four weeks.

By comparison, Fit Club still includes the therapy component, but is 16 weeks long, costs about $1,000 per child and takes place in the environment that the child must live in — namely at Title I schools, which are defined as schools where a majority of children get federally funded free and reduced-priced lunches.

"For the $20,000 Louie's Kids used to spend on four kids, now we can help 20," Yuhasz says of the concept, which will target middle school-age children and require parental involvement from the get-go.

Fit Club starts with school nurses identifying students with body mass indexes, or BMIs, of 30 or higher, clinically considered obese. Their parents are required to attend an informational meeting and vow their support. Part of that includes turning their houses into "Fat-Free Zones" — free of fried foods, soft drinks and other high-fat and empty-calorie junk.

So, in other words, everyone must be on board.

Meanwhile, the children participated in a minimum of two 2 1/2-hour mandatory sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those sessions included physical activity, food education and counseling sessions, either via conference calls or in person with a licensed clinician contracted through Louie's Kids. Participants also have to keep a food journal and wear a pedometer, which they must not lose but get to keep at the end of the program.

Even though this is a first run of Fit Kids, adults involved with the program see remarkable changes in participants.

Shavonna Coakley, a sixth-grade teacher at Mitchell who is very familiar with the children, has volunteered about 10 hours a week to the program despite working, caring for six children of her own and pursuing a master's degree.

"These kids are dealing with much more than their weight problems," says Coakley.

Coakley says many are now getting involved in school activities and have a stronger sense of belonging and self-confidence.

Bucky Buchanan, a teacher at the University School of the Lowcountry and a paid, part-time staffer of Louie's Kids, has the challenging task of leading the children through activities.

"I focus on keeping it fun and keeping them moving. We played a lot of tag, but I also work in things like push-ups and jumping jacks," says Buchanan. "My only two rules were no sitting down, and when I'm talking, all eyes are on me."

In addition to Tuesdays and Thursdays, Buchanan also offered activities on Saturdays, such as going to the climbing wall or walking to a movie and back. He also lined up special programs, such as meeting with staff from Try-Sports and getting free shoes, which they had to earn, from the Mount Pleasant running store.

The experience has been an eye-opener for Buchanan, who graduated from the College of Charleston in May and was recruited immediately by Yuhasz.

"Sometimes some of the stories I heard from the kids made me want to go home and cry, but the transformation I've witnessed has been incredible," says Buchanan.

Meanwhile, Yuhasz already has plans to start the next Fit Club later this month, inviting families from Mitchell, Sanders-Clyde and Fraser elementary schools, and is pitching it to schools in Alexandria, Va. (where Louie's Kids originated), and eventually Raleigh and Detroit.