KU health and fitness day gives kids chance to see college basketball

By Lindsey Slater

November 18, 2008

For an 11 a.m. game on a Tuesday, the stands were pretty full for the Kansas University women’s basketball game against Iowa.

The attendance of more than 3,500 students, teachers, parents and administrators representing Lawrence public elementary schools helped.

Tuesday was the first time that KU planned a health and fitness day with such a large group. Students in third through sixth grades from all of the city’s 15 elementary schools cheered on the Jayhawks and learned a thing or two about what it means to be a student athlete.

Women’s head coach Bonnie Henrickson was impressed with how well the youngsters seemed to know the game.

“Elementary school kids have great basketball IQ in Lawrence because they really knew when we needed help,” she said after KU won, 76-55. “They got loud when we needed them to be loud.”

The kids were more than happy to help cheer on the women.

“It was pretty cool,” said Anya Dickinson-Cove, a fifth-grader at Schwegler School. “Once they got the lead, it was no doubt they’re going to win.”

There were even a few future coaches in the crowd.

“They played really well today,” said Joshua Thomas, a sixth-grader at New York School. “Next time they play, I think that they should do a little bit more defense.”

Before the game, sixth-graders spent time learning about safety, nutrition, fitness and goal setting from the athletic staff and players.

Afterward, some Jayhawk athletes took to the court to answer questions.

“Being an athlete is tough,” said senior Marcus Herford, a wide receiver for KU’s football team. “It’s a tough deal, but we take it on each day with vigor.”

Junior softball outfielder Ally Stanton said she was surprised how many kids were in the stands.

“We felt like little rock stars. They’re so cute,” she said.

KU Athletics and their sponsors paid for everything for the students, from lunch to T-shirts.

And this first experience was a positive one for the school district and student athletes alike.

“We have kids that may or may not be able to do something like this with their families, so to give them this opportunity is just great,” said Anne Hawks, a curriculum specialist for the Lawrence district.

Students also had the chance to get autographs from the women’s basketball team after the game.

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Classes, workshops, seminars

THE FAMILY SERIES PART SIX: “I SHOULD, I OUGHT, I HAVE TO”: Discuss the guilt that typically goes along with the role of a caregiver. 1:30-3 p.m. Nov. 10, Tri-County Mental Health Services, Northland Human Services Building, Second Floor Conference Room, 3100 N.E. 83rd, Kansas City. Free. Register. www.tri-countymhs.org (913-831-3888)

Flu shots, immunizations

PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST INFLUENZA: Written physician’s order and parental consent are required for those 16-17 years of age. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Nov. 6, American Red Cross, Mill-Walk Mall, 2733 Cantrell, Harrisonville. $25. For those 16 years old and above. www.kcredcross.org (816-380-4271)

DRIVE THRU FLU SHOTS: Non-perishable food items will be accepted for Harvesters at this time. Sponsored by the University of Kansas Hospital. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Nov. 8, The University of Kansas Hospital, 3901 Rainbow Blvd Kansas City, Kansas. Free. www.kumed.com (913-588-1227)

Health fairs, screenings

BLOOD PRESSURE CHECKS: 9:30-11 a.m. Nov. 5, Olathe Senior Center, Multi Purpose Room 110, 311 E. Park, Olathe. Free, donations accepted. For ages 50 plus. www.jcprd50plus.com (913-782-1878)

STROKE AND OSTEOPOROSIS SCREENING: The complete screening package now includes a new Heart Rhythm screening which checks for irregular heartbeat, a major risk factor for stroke. 9 a.m. Nov. 6, Wexford Place, 6500 N. Cosby, Kansas City. 9 a.m. Nov. 7, Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #4, 7844 Leavenworth, Kansas City, Kansas. $149 for a Wellness package. Please call to set up an appointment. www.lifelinescreening.com (1-800-697-9721)

HEALTH AND SPIRITUALITY WORKSHOP: This continuing nurse education activity will count for 11 accredited contact hours. 12:30-8:30 p.m. Nov. 7; 7:45 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 8, Community of Christ Temple, 201 S. River, Independence. $75 for Friday and Saturday workshops including 2 meals. $10 discount for Seniors over 65 years. 1/2 price for students. Call for registration pricing and extra fee information. www.CofChrist.org (816-833-1000 ext. 1262)

BIRTHRIGHT EMERGENCY PREGNANCY SERVICE TRAINING: This class is to train new volunteers. Lunch will be provided. 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Nov. 8, Birthright, Emergency Pregnancy Service, 6309 Walnut. Free. Registration required. www.birthright.org (816-444-7090)

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Salina Ks

Fitness, whole-health testing offered for seniors

Sat. Nov. 15th and Tues and Nov. 18th.

Fitness and whole-health testing geared specifically to seniors will be offered Saturday and Tuesday at the University United Methodist Church, 1509 S. Santa Fe.

The testing is available to the public without cost. No appointments are necessary, but advance registration is encouraged.

The tests, administered under the supervision of Evelyn Maxwell, registered nurse, include the nationally known Senior Fitness Test as well as health habits, nutrition and depression screening.

Participants may choose one of four sessions planned over the two days. The sessions, in the church’s lower-level forum, will begin at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. each day. Participants are asked to wear comfortable clothing and walking shoes.

To register or seek more information, call Maxwell at 827-3304 or e-mail emmx@cox.net.

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The Kansas Health Consumer Coalition and the Kansas Faith Alliance for Health Reform invite you to a legislative candidate forum on Thursday, October 23rd from 7:00-8:30 p.m.

The event will be held at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, Marvin Auditorium 101B-C, 1515 SW 10th Avenue, Topeka. All Topeka-area candidates for the state senate and house have been invited to attend.

The forum gives you an opportunity to listen to candidates address one of the most pressing issues for Kansans-access and affordability of health care. A question and answer format will be directed by a moderator, with some time allotted for questions from the audience.

The following is a list of the candidates attending this discussion:

Laura Kelly
Shari Weber
Carolyn Weinhold
Ann Mah
Annie Tietze
Annie Kuether
Vicki Schmidt

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Hundreds expected to take the Plunge

ERIN MATHEWS
Hundreds of Salinans may soon feel like a real weight has been lifted from their shoulders — and their thighs and hips and stomachs. More than 850 people are signed up so far to participate in Pound Plunge, a free, community-wide, 12-week program designed to help participants lose weight the healthy way through regular exercise and nutritious food choices.

“We’re doing the whole thing — nutrition, exercise and having fun,” said Ellen Hogeland, fitness director for the Salina Family YMCA and one of the event organizers. “If we can get a lot of people in Salina motivated, then that’s the key.”

The program, which was patterned after a similar event in Hays, kicks off from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Bicentennial Center, where new four-person teams will still be able to register. Salina Regional Health Center nurses have volunteered to take blood pressure readings, and participants will have the option of having blood work done at half price to determine cholesterol, lipid and glucose levels.

At 9:45 a.m., Salina Mayor John Vanier will address the crowd. At 10 a.m., Jez Luckett, a Garden City man who lost 150 pounds while a contestant on the reality TV show “The Biggest Loser,” will give a motivational message.

Participants, who must be 18 or older and not pregnant, can sign up until Sept. 20 to compete as part of a team. Team members should plan to visit the YMCA each week between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays or during YMCA hours Wednesdays to weigh in and track their progress. Weight information will be kept confidential.

Read more about Pound Plunge in Friday’s Salina Journal.

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Smoke-free Kansas Bill Passed in Senate Ways & Means

On Monday, March 24th the Senate Ways and Means Committee had a hearing on Senate Bill 660, a bill to restrict smoking in ALL indoor public places across the state, in turn protecting the health of Kansas workers and patrons.

The committee amended SB 660, and passed it on to the full Senate! The bill passed out of committee with only two dissenting votes.  The current bill has no requirement for a county-by-county vote for the provisions of the bill to be implemented.  SB 660 is a comprehensive clean indoor air bill, without any major exemptions.

Amendments were offered by Senator Wysong during the hearing.  The committee accepted the following: exemptions for the Kansas veterans home and the Kansas soldiers home, portions of an adult care home that may contain a designated smoking area, tobacco shops, commercial motor vehicles, and the main gaming floor of a gaming facility to be located in southeast Kansas (due to the proximity of native American casinos right across the border in Oklahoma).

As written, the bill would protect the majority of residents in the state of Kansas from the harms of secondhand smoke.  Please take a moment and send the Senate Ways & Means Committee a “thank you” e-mail for their support of SB 660.  Please click Thank the Senate Ways & Means  to thank the committee members.

Your e-mails and phone calls to your Senators paid off.  YOU helped make this happen!  Thank you for making your voices heard!  Let’s keep the momentum going so we can add Kansas to the ever growing list of smoke-free states!

Thank you for your support!

Source: American Heart Association

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I went to my email this afternoon and found an email from Randy Bragg owner of The Voice of Bragg Blog. He emailed me telling me that he had reviewed my blog I was kind of shocked cause either he did it out of the blue or I must have asked for one awhile back and don’t remember.

Anyway you can find my review over at the post Kansans and Friends in Weight Loss. I also left a comment on the post too.

Needless to say it was an awesome surprise. 

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Ok it is time to shake the cobwebs from this blog and shake it up. The next Walk Kansas starts March 9th. Who in Kansas is going to join in with me and do this 8 week program?

For information follow the link above and lets rock Kansas. Let’s show the country we can move up the ranks as being in the top ten healthiest states to live in. Being in the backside of the top 30 is unacceptable. Let’s rock the house on March 9th.

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Ladies and Gentlemen it is with great pleasure that I anounce a new addition to Kansans and Friends In Weight Loss.

Her name is Jesse and this is her bio.

Hi, my name is Jessica Viera (A.K.A Jessy).  I live in Lake Mary, FL, which is right outside Orlando.  I have lived in Florida my entire life and ready to move =).    Let’s see where to start…. I am happily married to my husband, Marco and we have a wonderful daughter (Madison).  We are expecting our son, Anthony in May.  Let me not forget our four legged son, Tater, he’s an English bulldog, who thinks he’s human.  I am very family oriented and love to do things with my family close as well as extended (friends etc.)   My daughter is 6 and will turn 7 when her brother is born.  She is not so fond of sharing the birthday week, she only wants me and her to have that week (her birthday is the day before mine).  I think we will be able to work around it, maybe =). 

 I recently started my own company, in Virtual Assistance.  I have worked for over 5 years in Administrative and over 7 years in Marketing & sales of some form.  I am still building it.  I do work ranging from emails to Bookkeeping and willing to learn anything if it means I can help you.  That is actually my company logo, “How Can I Help You”.  I established my company to be that one stop place for companies, web sites, etc., especially small.  I am fully aware of how hard it is to run a company.  I want to make it easier and a little less stressful for them.  Instead of searching and searching for the right person to do the services or even assist, that is what I am there for.  I will help and learn whatever it takes to make it easier and help your needs flow as smooth as possible.

I have several hobbies that I love to do.  I am a stickler for designing and writing, I love poetry and reading (I am part of an all mom Book Club), I absolutely love my CSI shows of any type (I know much of a hobby, but I guess when you have seen almost all of them it kind of makes it one) and pretty much anything with the family.  I hate to be idle; I’d rather have a ton of things to do than nothing. I really do not know what to do with myself if I have nothing to do

Well, that pretty much gives you a brief summery of me.  Questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Jessica Viera

Virtual Assistant

Please welcome her to my team and also please hop on over to our message board and offer her your hello’s and greetings.

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Resolutions ready? Take the plunge

12/29/2007By KALEY LYON

Hays Daily News

It’s back!

As 2008 draws near, The Center for Health Improvement is preparing for a repeat of what turned out to be its most popular event yet, Pound Plunge.

The program, which encourages locals to eat healthy and exercise right, shocked staff members and the entire community when about 1,500 people signed on last year to drop the pounds.

While it’s too soon for exact numbers, the second annual event is expected to be another big one, said Stephanie Schaffer, fitness manager.

“They keep coming in every day,” Schaffer said of this year’s registrations. “I’m expecting a lot more.”

The 12-week weight loss program will begin on Jan. 10 and end April 3. Each team must consist of four members, and the deadline to register is Jan. 6.

The beginning of the year is a good time to have such an event — New Year’s resolutions often help keep participants motivated, she said.

“New Year’s is a time when a lot of people in our country set goals,” Schaffer said. “The big thing is to lose weight and to exercise. It’s just a perfect time of the year to implement a team like this.”

Overall, the routine will be about the same as last year. Participants will receive a weekly nutrition or exercise tip to help them drop pounds and keep them off, she said.

The teams also will weigh in each week to track their progress, and at the end of the program, the team with the highest percentage of weight lost will receive a prize.

Unlike last year, when only the first place team received a financial award and free membership to the center, the top three teams will be rewarded.

Also unlike last year, team members will have the opportunity to weigh in on new digital scales, and individuals’ blood pressures will be recorded at the beginning and end of the program to gauge improvement, Schaffer said.

The program isn’t limited to the center — it strives to include the larger community and encourages participants and other local entities to get involved, she said.

“It’s just about getting people moving,” Schaffer said. “It’s just to teach people about fitness and exercise and nutrition, and they love it.”

Schaffer said she expects many of last year’s participants to try it again, and there also are many new team members already signed up.

“I think we’ll have people who did it last year who had great success. They’ll come back,” she said. “I think you’ll have people who did it last year and maybe have found out they need to do it a different way this year. And then you’re going to have the people who are going to come back, and this motivated them to lose weight and keep weight off.”

Deanna Staab, Hays, is one such individual. She participated in last year’s health challenge and has continued losing weight ever since.

At November’s Pound Plunge reunion, Staab took first place for having lost, and kept off, the highest percentage of body weight since the challenge began in early 2007.

Staab lost 13 pounds during pound plunge, and by continuing to eat and exercise healthy since then, has lost an additional 24 pounds.

“I really enjoy it,” she said. “I feel better and started exercising regularly, so that was the key — just to lose a little at a time.”

Staab’s team dubbed themselves the “hot tamales,” and the team support is what kept her going, she said. Her goal for Pound Plunge 2, which she has already signed up for, is to lose an additional 10 pounds, she said.

“I’m just happy about it,” Staab said. “It’s a good deal and everybody should sign up. It just gives you an idea of where you’re at and what you should be doing.”

Reporter Kaley Lyon can be reached at (785) 628-1081 Ext. 138, or by e-mail at klyon@dailynews.net.

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Those folks who wonder why I am so stuck in my ways to keep the name I have for my blog maybe this will get you to see why I am so tenacious in my mission. You see my state is still fat.

In two related articles from The Lawrence Journal World and The Wichita Eagle’s Kansas.com this week both publications have the new results of the state obesity ranking. We are at the 27th mark with a 23.4 percent rate for adult obesity and 24th at a rate of 14 percent for overweight youth’s. Here in Topeka we have so many eating joints you can’t get away from them.

According to the Wichita Eagle’s article James Early, a Wichita prevention and wellness expert and medical director of Solutions for Life says state and local efforts are underway. Well let’s see here in my town we don’t need The Rib Crib,Texas Roadhouse, and Longhorn Steakhouse and Coyote Canyon in one vicinity. I am serious if you go down the Wanamaker corridor here in my town you will get smacked in the face with the gluttony that is our state capital’s eating habits.

It seems there  are some initiatives at Lawrence’s Haskell University underway with the “Healthier Haskell” a 10 month program that will feature monthly monthly and daily activities on fitness, nutrition and wellness. The focal point of the initiative will be a walking program where the goal is to walk 24,901 miles.Lori Tapahonso executive assistant and public information officer thinks this goal can be reached if 250 people walk 10 miles a month for 10 months.

Sonja Armbruster of the Sedgwick County Health Department says that businesses that have promoted health,nutrition and stress reduction have seen their health costs go down. By the way I want to mention I had a chance to work with Sonja last semester when our program planning and evaluation class was asked to participate in a health day at the capital. She was great to work with as she made sure our group had everything we needed in the way of equipment and information so we looked like professionals.

So there you have it folks this is why I do what I do and why I have built the mini empire I have on the internet targeted towards Kansas. I am brave enough to stand up and point out our weakness with food and unhealthy lifestyle. I was thinking as I was writing this that I am sure to get blasted by folks who just might come across this who live in my state but I don’t care. At this rate Kansas parents will survive their children instead of their children surviving them. It will knock the scales in the other direction in the state mortality rates. That is not the way things are supposed to be.

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