Newsletter 2

In a recent post I mentioned the second edition of our newsletter- The year is coming to a close and we have a couple of things that are happening for next year in the way of organized walks and health fairs. This newletter might be the last of the year and I would love for a few people to write about a couple of wellness tips for the summer about keeping active and eating right. Maybe even a piece on skin disease and or staying out of the sun.



Please let me know via the blog or e-mail- and soon to come a page on our SMS wiki- dare I dream of a paperless society?

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Why Organic Gardening ?

I have been asked over the past 33 years, "Why grow your vegetables, flowers and lawn organically?"

I believe we have a relationship with the land. We use it to grow our food, build our homes; it provides a place for our children to play and cleans our air. For far too many years we have pillaged the land and have grown our food in earth loaded with chemicals and pesticides. I cannot argue with the fact that the chemicals work, but at what cost? It artificially stimulates the growth of the plants, kills a number of good as well as harmful insects, gets into our food chain, contaminates our water, and depletes and inhibits living organisms in soil.

Going organic is not just about non chemical usage. It is a philosophy and a way of life. It is a feeling that you are a steward of the earth. Land owners must utilize both science and basic values to build the soil and give our children, pets and communities a safe place to live and play.

The research shows that going organic: builds richer soil, stimulates humus, supplies trace elements, has a lasting effect on the soil, will not burn plants, releases slowly, is nontoxic, environmentally safe, and costs about the same as chemicals.

So I ask, "Why not go organic?"

Please feel free to discuss your gardening needs with me. I would like an opportunity to show you the organic way.

Newsletter

I would like to start thinking about putting together May's newsletter. I would love any feedback on last month's newsletter and maybe some volunteers to write a couple of short blurbs for the next one. What do you think?

Morning Walks

Come join me for a morning walk. I start at 8:00 and complete 4 laps. This is not a race, rather a quiet cool way to start your day. You never know what you will see!

Some walking facts

Yes... I read Real Simple magazine once in a while..between issues of Sports Illustrated and Golf magazine. This is a great and informative article on the benefits of walking. Here is an article about creating a walking walking workout that works and that fits into your schedule.



Don't forget about those stairs on the sides of our building. Not only are they always clear, but you have to walk a ways to get to them.



Enjoy

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Walk your way to fitness

Some of you probably saw John C. this morning walking around the building, and some of you saw me in the afternoon doing the same thing. It was a beautiful day today and I wanted to get this started before the snow hits us again for Easter. (There goes the planting session I had planned next week) If you couldn't make it today, don't worry. We will continue with this for the rest of the year and maybe extend it to pick-up basketball or softball or even biking around the building if people want to bring in their equipment. I work out 3/4 days a week at Sparta Athletic Club, but I have been slacking on the off days. This is a great way to get a 30 minute walk in and just relieve some stress at the end of the day.



Feel free to comment on this using the blog or create a new post with other ideas you might have. I would love for this to extend to the kids in some way, because 30 minutes a day is really all it takes. Society is looking at this closely too. The statistics are scary. Take a look at this article and let's see what we can do in our community to help fight the good fight.

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Walking club's maiden voyage

The "WALK your way to fitness" sessions will begin on Monday, April 2nd. There will be two sessions, one in the morning at 7:30 and one in the afternoon at 4:10. Each will last for 30 minutes or so. We will see if this catches on and we can eventually have races.

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A Supersize Problem

This is the article you received at the meeting this morning...an interesting read to say the least. Using McDonald's terminology to describe the problem echoes the fact that the problem is easily solved through educating about the right choices. Read through the article and feel free to comment.

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Walking club

One thing that we spoke about at our last meeting was the possibility of having a walking club during the last 10 or so minutes of lunch. Any thoughts on how to organize this? Any volunteers?

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Meeting on Wednesday

We will be meeting on Wed. March 28th to discuss a couple of things.
1. survey results- we will look at the numbers and come up with a course of action and some possible directions in which to move.
2. We will have Dr. Eric with us. He is a chiropractor in town and he will be able to put us in contact with different people in the field that might be interested in donating time and knowledge.
3. Newsletter- all of you have seen a copy of the newsletter- I would love some more feedback about what future issues might look like. I was thinking something along the lines of success stories; maybe start with internet stories and invite kids in our school to submit stories of healthy lifestyle choices.

thanks again

Offering time and services

I was in contact again today with Dr. Eric. He will be coming to our next meeting, which will be on March 8th at 8:15- He would love to be a part of what we are doing and has taken the liberty of talking with a few helthcare professionals in the area. A personal trainer, a nutritionist, and a massage therapist who would be interested in coming in to give demos or informational sessionis. We will meet on the 8th to discuss logistics again and to go over the survey results. (thanks Phil and Denise)

Meeting today

I thought that was a great meeting today. Many good ideas and a lot of enthusiasm. We will use the faculty basketball game as a kick off to the different activities that we will organize over the next couple of months. We will put the recipes into effect this week and then we will work on getting professionals in the area in to speak to both the faculty and students.

Long time, no post!

It is time to start this blog up again after a brief hiatus. I hope everyone enjoyed the massage day. I heard some really positive things from those who were able to take advantage of it. It is exactly what we need sometimes. Maybe not a massage but some way to just "power down" for a few minutes during the course of our day.

The surveys that Dot, Tara and Diane worked on have gone out and are coming in. I will need someone to go through them and assess the info.

The faculty basketball game is also coming up- February 27th - and Tara had an excellent idea of using it to promote the wellness campaign. We can plan some other events to take place as well using the game as a starting point.

I have been in contact with Dr. Eric and he is willing to come in with a short powerpoint. June has said that the cafe can also get involved with special lunches.

Let's start using this blog to share with each other and hopefully we will connect to other schools using this blog as well.

Enjoy!

Chiropractic Care

Amy had Dr. Eric, a chiropractor in town, get in touch with me. I have gone to him before for adjustments as well- I was thinking about having him come in to talk to people about the benefits-

thoughts

Jan 26th

As I mentioned at the faculty meeting, my brother is coming in to the school to give free massages during prep periods on the 26th of this month- it is a way to promote staff wellness- I have also been in touch with Dr. Eric- Amy DelCoro mentioned having him come into the school and talk either to the staff or to the students about the benefits of chiropractic medicine- he happens to be my chiropractor too - any thought and what we would like him to do?