The salad -- complete with lots of leafy greens -- that Richard Harris ate for lunch wasn't so bad.

But Harris, 12, from Dagsboro, said it could have used a little dressing.

Mariah Zamores, 11, of Georgetown, liked it "sort of ... I don't like tomatoes."

But even lukewarm enthusiasm about lettuce and tomatoes was a positive sign last week at a weeklong camp for pre-teens and young teens that focused on healthy eating, exercise and self-esteem.

The camp at Cape Henlopen State Park near Lewes was geared toward children who are overweight or obese.

Some of the other campers weren't so enthusiastic about the salad. They simply picked up their salad-filled plates and tossed them in the trash.

"The goal is not to lose weight here," said Peggy Geisler, one of the coordinators of the inaugural Sussex Health Outdoor Recreation & Education Fun Camp that was put on by the Sussex County Child Health Promotion Coalition.

Instead, this camp was about showing children how to make healthy choices about food and to encourage exercise.

"By changing a few things ... their health will improve," Geisler said.

Children who are overweight often develop other health issues such as heart disease, joint problems and diabetes as they grow older, she said.

And as youngsters, they are often bullied or ostracized by their classmates in school, she said.

Often, children who are overweight are very forceful about what they will and will not eat when they are at home. In one case, Geisler said, a child takes two sugary sodas to school every day with lunch. Other times, children refuse to eat meals and dictate a diet that may be less healthy than what the rest of the family is eating.

Childhood obesity is a problem state officials and local organizations are working hard to address in Delaware. In a 2007 survey of Children's Health, 33.2 percent of Delaware children between the ages of 10 and 17 were considered overweight or obese -- above the national average of 31.2 percent.

But the percentage of overweight and obese children in the state is dropping. In the same survey done in 2003, 35.5 percent of Delaware's children were overweight or obese compared with a national average of 30.6 percent.

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