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Mississippi Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Fall 2006 Newsletter For Convention information
Hello members! Many exciting things are already happening for MAHPERD this year. Convention plans are underway, Katrina schools have been assisted, Jump Rope for Heart has maintained itself despite Katrina, Milton Wilder has been nominated for a candidate for President of Southern District for 2007, several members are serving on Southern District committees, members attended the Southern District Leadership Conference in Chattanooga, schools have school health councils and are implementing wellness plans and vending has been reassessed for the schools in Mississippi. We have directly affected many of these events and are indirectly involved in some. However, our influence of members has been felt in all of these aspects. First of all, convention plans are going great. Courtney Taylor (Mississippi University for Women) is working as campus coordinator of the convention along with Gary Wilson and me. We have all facilities secured for the conference. Columbus Tourism will be sponsoring a hamburger cookout for Friday night at the River Walk in Columbus or a convenient location to campus and our awards luncheon and Jump breakfast is in place for the dining hall on campus. Plymouth Bluff and The Holiday Inn are the two lodging sites that will be promoted for the convention participants. Both of these entities have given MAHPERD good convention prices. Some of the exhibitors that will be presenting programs are Sportime who will present grant information, Geo Fitness Mats who will present demonstrations on their dance mats, Coca Cola who will present company fitness products and initiatives, and Speed Stacks that will be presenting the entertaining and educational speed cups programs.These are just a few of the vendors – many more are committed and continuing to submit the paperwork. A glimpse of programs include the opening session on Friday morning with Dr. Hill (Past President 2005 of the American Medical Association)who opened the Governor’s Health Summit this summer, Tracy Suiter and Dr. Milton Kuykendall from DeSoto County (Bower Network School) presenting school initiatives, Libby Mosely and Wendy Gibson from Sudduth Elementary in Starkville (Bower Network School) also will be presenting school initiatives, Blue Cross, Blue Shield will be presenting working with schools and communities, The MS Department of Health will be presenting preventive health programs, and Terry Smith (WTVA), Steve Rogers (Columbus Dispatch Newspaper), and Audrea Self (WCBI) will be presenting “How the Media Affects Health and Fitness.” Gary Wilson will be presenting Jump Rope for Heart Program, we have several members presenting dance and physical education programs. Baptist Hospital Golden Triangle will be presenting two programs on wellness and have a booth for information and North MS Medical Center’s Tracey Stebbins will be presenting her “Weigh Down West Point” exercise and nutrition program that has been adopted by schools, communities and worksites all over the state. Saturday morning’s opening session will be Emil Pawlik and his wife, both are senior athletes who have great national records in track and field. Emil recently won the Blue Cross/Blue Shield “Vigor” award. The Fitnessgram will be presented as a two hour program on “Use of the Fitnessgram for Assessment.” Paulette Adler with Ethicon Endo-Surgery will be presenting alternatives for obesity treatment and The Office of Healthy Schools will have two programs. These are only a few of the programs that have been submitted and the vendors that will be participating. I am currently working on the complete list to have posted after our September Board meeting. The two pre-convention workshops are “Physical Best” training and “How to Implement the Wellness Plan.” There will be much more information on these workshops coming to the website soon. Dr. Quentin Christian, California’s Executive Director for the state affiliation of AAHPERD, is our “Ikey Carr” luncheon speaker and Josey Templeton and Bill Dickens will be representing Southern District. Josey will also be presenting a programs and Bill Dickens, who is the Southern District 2006 President will have opening remarks at the first general session. Dr. Robert Leach, VP Elect for Research has secured stellar research proposals and projects that will be presented at MAHPERD, including presentations by Associate Professor Denise Brown, Ph.D., RD, LD, of the University of Southern Mississippi on the, “Financial Impact of Healthy Choices Vending Regulations in Mississippi Schools,” and Assistant Professor Paul Rukavina, Ph.D., of Mississippi State University, who will present, “Kinesiology Pre-Professionals' Reflections after a Fitnessgram Service-Learning Project.” Works by Leach and Yates at the MUW will be presented including a literature review, “Community Based Youth Soccer Intervention for Childhood Overweight and Obesity,” as well as a preliminary report of a randomized clinical trial, “Multi-Intervention Approach to Childhood Overweight and Obesity.” The results of the 2005-2006 school year for Jump Rope for Heart and Hoops for Heart for Mississippi have been finalized. We had 152 schools participate in Jump Rope for Heart and 51 schools participated in Hoops for Heart. The state raised $311,182.00 for the American Heart Association through the efforts of many dedicated physical education and health professionals throughout the state. MAHPERD will recognize the top 20 Jump Rope for Heart coordinators and the top 10 Hoops for Heart coordinators at our annual convention in November. The coordinators will receive plaques and certificates at the annual awards breakfast on November 4, 2006. A list of the top schools and coordinators can be found on the MAHPERD web site. You can view the list by clicking on the Jump link. The American Heart Association will have a booth at the convention. MAHPERD members can stop by the booth to view new jump and hoops material and prizes. Youth market directors from several of the state districts will be available to answer your questions. Hurricane Katrina did major damage to many schools on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. MAHPERD has received money from other AAHPERD organization throughout the country designated to assist in replacing equipment devastated by the hurricane. The states of Georgia. Minnesota, New Jersey, Tennessee, Connecticut, Alabama, South Carolina, New York, Maine, Misisssippi, Ohio and also Southern District AHPERD, donated $8,320.00 for this effort. The MAHPERD Board of Directors voted to award grants in the amount of $500 to schools devastated to assist in replacing equipment. The schools that had participated in Jump Rope for Heart or Hoops for Heart in the past were given first priority in receiving grants. The board also stipulated that every fourth grant would be awarded to a school that had never participated in the Jump and Hoops effort. The schools receiving grants include Bay Catholic Elementary, Bay Waveland Middle School, Charles B Murphey Elementary, Coast Episcopal School, DeLisle Elementary, D’Iberville Middle School, Gorenflo Elementary, Harper-McCaughan Elementary, Nichols Elementary, North Bay Elementary, Pearl River Central Lower Elementary, Resurrection Catholic Elementary, Second Street Elementary, St.Martin Upper Elementary and Waveland Elementary. The American Heart Association, Sunflower Marketing and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance shared in the cost of shipping many Jump Rope for Heart and Hoops for Heart Thank You prizes for distribution to needy schools. The Heart Association affiliates from the Northeast, Texas, Pacific/Mountain, Heritage, Heartland, Mid-Atlantic and Pennsylvania/Delaware have been instrumental in these efforts by donating prizes. Gary Wilson, Anniston Elementary, agreed to be in charge of receiving the shipments and in the distribution to the schools. Lesly Barrow, Youth Market Director from Mobile, delivered many of the prizes to the schools. Southern District of AAHPERD held it’s annual leadership development conference at the Marriott Convention Center in Chattanooga, TN Aug. 4-5, 2006. 12 of the 13 Southern District states sent representatives. North Carolina was the only missing state. There were 75 total participants which included some 29 members of the Southern District Board of Directors. All participants received, in their information packet, a copy of the Southern District Grant Application form, the Southern District Strategic Plan, and a listing of Southern District Awards. These copies should make our MAHPERD BOD more knowledgeable of what is happening in Southern District. There were seven general sessions and six break out sessions. The general session topics included information about the structure and function of Southern District and where MAHPERD fits, how to be an effective Board member, how to conduct effective meetings, strategic planning with the S.D. Division Vice Presidents and their state counterparts, and how to be an effective delegate to S.D. and AAHPERD which was directed toward St. pres-elects and other state officers. The break out sessions covered grants, awards, how to get students involved, effective use of state publications and websites, and behind the scenes detailed planning of the state conventions. Four members of MAHPERD attended the Leadership Conference: Cheri Anglin-V-P. Elect Physical Education, Courtney Taylor V-P Elect Recreation, Erin Grant V-P Elect Dance and Milton Wilder as a sub for Pres. Elect Shane McNeil (Shane and Allyson had a new baby just a few weeks prior to the LDC). Wilder also presented the session on “Involving Future Professionals in Your Association and Your Profession to the LDC. One of the benefits of this leadership conference was that various officers from different states met together for at least one session to share ideas of how things worked in their state. One thing that Miss. needs to work on is making sure that we have functioning committees, especially for convention planning and programming, nominations and awards. These committees need to have a specified way of being appointed year after year. Also we don’t seem to be doing much in the state other than the convention and most other states have ongoing initiatives, projects and advocacy action plans. We are doing very well, compared to other states, with JRFH and Hoops for Heart efforts even though we don’t raise as much money as others. We do have an excellent structure in place. Much of the credit there goes to E.D. Gary Wilson. Our handling of the Katrina relief money sent by other states and S.D. was appreciated. Finally, in most states, convention planning is simply a report to the BOD when they meet and any action regarding the convention that the BOD needs to take is done there. The convention planning does not take place in the BOD meeting. Committee reports need to help drive the agenda for all BOD meetings. All awards for Southern District now go to the Past President of S.D. and that person distributes them to the respective selection committees. This year the past president of Southern District is Fran Meyers. Shane McNeill, President Elect of MAHPERD and Director of the Coordinated School Health Program- The Office of Healthy Schools has promoted wellness throughout Mississippi through the implementation of the Comprehensive Health Framework Training- TEACH Mississippi, the development of the Physical Education Framework Training, numerous grant opportunities to local school districts for implementation of a coordinated approach to school health through the John D. Bower, M.D. School Health Network, implementation of school health councils and development of Local School Wellness Policies through the Health is Academic Start-Up Grants, and implementation of the health services component through the EPSDT School Nurse Program. The Office of Healthy Schools has also provided support for legislation concerning physical education, health education, and vending regulations. The Office of Healthy Schools understands the relationship between student health and academic achievement and plans to support local initiatives through future initiatives such as, professional development on coordinated school health and school health councils, development of resources for marketing a healthy school environment, and future grant opportunities. The MAHPERD continues to support the efforts of the MS Department of Education and the Office of Healthy Schools in helping promote physical fitness and nutrition for all students. What a tremendous year we have in store for MAHPERD. Be an active member, participate in the conference, apply for the MAHPERD grant, direct a Jump or Hoops project at your school or wellness entity and continue to support health and wellness for the entire state of Mississippi through the efforts of school, community, worksites and the lay public in general.
Sincerely, Joyce Yates MAHPERD 2006 President
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