Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

PNCHA gets "Active for Life"

Active for Life is a new program being introduced to Prescott and Nevada County.

Members of the Prescott-Nevada County Health Alliance learned of it Friday, Jan. 6. Donnie Crain, executive director of the Prescott-Nevada County Economic Development Office, said it is one of the components of a diabetes grant.

The diabetes grant, he said, is primarily to help educate teachers and health care workers about the disease and how to work with those who have it.

Active for Life, though, has little to do with diabetes, other than getting people to watch their diet and get more exercise, which plays an important role in the prevention of diabetes. Active for Life, Crain said, allows people to set goals for themselves and exercise at their own pace.

Currently, he said, eight teams have signed up for the program.

Mary Alice Blevins talked about the diabetes part of the grant saying the education part was set up because of local needs. Area nursing homes, she said, have asked for help in educating their nursing assistants abut diabetes. In addition, she added, parents and teachers have expressed a desire to know more about good nutrition.

A seminar will be held, open to everyone interested, at St. Michaels. The seminar, though, will be six hours long and lunch will be provided. Anyone interested in attending can call Janet McAdams at the Nevada County Health Unit at 887-2004.

Active for Life, though, is to help people develop a health lifestyle. McAdams said participants will receive T-shirts and a sports pedometer to help them keep up with how far and how long they walk. There will also be participation awards decided on by the team captains. The idea is to get six or eight people on teams.

Those participating will be credited with one point for every minute of exercise. The exercising can be done based on each individuals capabilities.

New officers were installed at the meeting as well. There will be co-presidents this year, as Joyce Gibson and Pat McCullough take the helm. Lori Arnett is the vice president with Debbie Henderson the new secretary. Kay Hendrix is the new treasurer.

Edie Greenwood told the group the county received a new tobacco grant, which is being handled by Tina Blevins. Blevins has contacted several groups and gone through a lot of training to help people kick the smoking habit. However, the grant began in August and ends in July. Blevins wasnt hired until November. This, Greenwood said, means the plans have been reworked.

In addition, she said, the county is still targeted by the Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation and will receive a grant to continue battling this disease. Last year the PNCHA had a prostate van at its annual Health-A-Rama in September where DREs and PSAs were done. Wed like to do it again this year.

The plans the PNCHA has for 2006 include hosting another Health-A-Rama in September, working on Childrens Week and having a health retreat this year.

The Alliance celebrated its fourth anniversary. It began in 2002 when three existing entities, the Childrens Week Coalition, the TEA Coalition and the Health Alliance, joined together and began working as one.