CURRENT NEWS:

We will now be meeting each Friday in the Starlite Room at the Top Of  The Tower. To accommodate us there will be a serving line set up for us in an adjoining room.  No more long walks with our food.  Also since we have been meeting at the Top Of  The Tower, our luncheon has been $10.00 per person.  However on   June 10, the meal cost  increased to $12.00.  Because the Top Of  The Tower will be closed the week of July 3 to 9, there will be no meeting on July 8.  Be sure to mark your calendars.

The next District Convention will be held in Topeka during the third week-end in August.  Once again we have been asked to man the hospitality room. We will need volunteers and a sign up sheet will be available later on.

Mark your calendars for our next Pancake Breakfast and Bake Sale on June 18.  Tickets were distributed to those present on June 3, and mailed to members not present that day.  A sign-up sheet is available at each meeting.

Latest word is that Ted Heim has been moved to Atria Hearthstone, where he will remain for several weeks. Hopefully, we’ll see him before too long.

And we are saddened to learn that Jim Shannon’s wife, Jean,is in Rolling Hills Health Center.  Please keep them in your prayers.

Meeting of June 3, 2011:

Our speaker was Bob Hedberg, who is the Grants and Projects Officer for the Shawnee County Health Agency. Hedberg combined a slide presentation with his own comments.  His theme dealt primarily with Shawnee County’s ranking of Health Outcomes and Health Factors. Health Outcomes measured were: Mortality ( Premature Deaths); and Morbidity (Quality of Life) and (Birth Outcomes).  Health Factors measured were: (Health Behaviors) , (Clinical Care), Social and Economic Factors) and Physical Environment).

 He said that data was obtained by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute in 2010 and 2011.

Shawnee County, according to that data, doesn’t fare too well.  We ranked about in the middle of all counties in Kansas in both rankings.  Outcomes was 54^th of the 105 counties and 61^st  for Factors.

Hedberg said that some actions are being taken to improve these health factors.  The plan is to unite: Business, Healthcare, Education, Government and Public Health.  The approach will be to assess our needs and resources, pick priorities, set policies and programs, and implement strategies.

Some organizations already involved are the Heartland Healthy Neighborhood Coalition, Heartland Visioning Quality of Life Foundation and the Safe Streets Coalition.

Some of the examples with negative findings are:

Morbidity:

Low Birthweight, -  % of live births with low birthweights

   Health Factors:

      Adult obesity

      Excessive drinking

      Sexually transmitted infections

      High teen birth rate

      Excessive primary care providers

      Lower % of high school graduates

      More children under 18 living in poverty

      Excessive single-parent households

     Lack of access to healthy foods

Hopefully we will be hearing more about the efforts to correct the deficiencies and make Shawnee County one of the healthy counties in Kansas.

We had two guests, Ruth Nelson who was in town to attend the inauguration of Judge David Bruns to the Kansas Court of Appeals, and Pam Lierz, Ken’s wife and the daughter of Junior and Mary Jane Elder; and we were pleased to have Harold Burkdoll and Carl Smith attend the meeting.  Rowland Hyle was fortunate enough to share $18 with the OI Foundation;  Harold Burkdoll was the winner of the badge number drawing and Ruth Nelson won the President’s Prize.

Meeting of June 10, 2011:

Tara Dimick, who is the owner and publisher of TK Magazine, spoke on the subjects of Heartland Healthy Neighborhoods and the Shawnee County Sodium Reduction Grant.  Believe it, or not, these two subjects are very much related.  Both programs are concerned with making Topeka and Shawnee County a healthier place to live.  On the one hand Heartland Healthy Neighborhoods has goal of creating a healthy environment. It is offering four programs: Scorecard, for youngsters ages 8 to 15, designed to get them more active on a daily basis; Wild Life Challenge, an on-line program concentrating on outdoor activities for youth; The Largest Workout, for people of all ages.  Last year this program hosted 575 people to Moore Bowl at Washburn University for a mass workout.  Another Workout is planned for September 13, this year; and finally, Vertical Gardens, whereby small self-contained gardens are furnished to the schools so that the students can actually tend a garden and watch it grow.

Somewhat related is a program for Sodium Reduction.  Here, a partnership of: Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the Shawnee County Health Agency and Heartland Healthy Neighborhoods will receive a grant of

$1,200,000 from the Center For Disease Control over the next three years.  Five such grants have been made, two in New York State and two in California.  So obviously this grant is a great plus for Shawnee County.  As the name says, the object is to educate the population to use foods with a lower sodium content.  And  a part of the program is to work toward lower costs for low-sodium products with a wider choice of such products throughout the City and County. The partnership has adopted four strategies to adopt guidelines and practices to enhance nutrition while reducing sodium intake; to work with vendors to make low sodium products less costly; and an advertising campaign to promote heart healthy, low sodium foods.  All of this, of course, to help each of us to be conscious of eating and exercising so as to live better and longer lives.                                                                                      

Today, we had one guest, Carrie Lancaster, Art Lancaster’s wife;  Junior Elder read an excellent joke flawlessly;  Tom Wigley shared $17 with the OI Foundation;  Dean Landman’s badge number was drawn and he          received the “Pot-O-Gold Award” (5 gold dollars in a gold bag, if you haven’t heard) ; and Clayton McMurray took home the President’s Award.