Nenana Wellness Coalition
Minutes
The Nenana Wellness Coalition is an alliance of representatives from various organizations, government agencies, community groups and individuals that meets weekly to discuss, evaluate, coordinate, consolidate, celebrate and help implement plans for improving the wellness and quality of life in Nenana Alaska.
There were six in attendance today, including: Bonnie Reed, Tim Horn, Kat McElroy, Maryellen & Leena Kanayurak and Miles Martin. We had pork and potato soup for lunch with crackers, and sliced apples and mixed nuts.
WELCOME: By this week’s chairperson: Bonnie Reed, followed by the
READING OF MISSION STATEMENT.
PRAYER: was lead by Tim Horn, followed by the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIENCE.
PRESENTATION OF AGENDA AND CALL FOR MODIFICATIONS: There was no call for modifications
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: minutes were submitted last Tuesday, electronically, by Kat. They were also posted on the WIN web-site which can be accessed via the Railbelt Mental Health & Addicitons home page at http://railbelt.com/
It is Kat’s intention to post all future WIN minutes at the WIN web site which is: http://railbelt.com/?page_id=7 Access to the minutes is on the right-hand side of the page under “Categories” Each week’s latest minutes will head the list. Archived minutes may be accessed on the right-hand side of the page; they are organized chronologically by month and year.
INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Leena was introduced as a guest.
Speakers/Topics
Health Fair-Redux – Tim Horn has contacted Phyllis in Fairbanks and determined that there will be a health fair training, in Fairbanks, tentatively scheduled for February 8th. We would like Tim and Laura Vance to be able to attend this training. Our general consensus is that last year’s health fair was successfully and WIN is willing to spearhead the effort again this year. Last year, it had been decided to schedule the health fair for a Saturday this year, and to focus on adult health issues. Our general strategy, we agreed, was to alternate from year to year with weekdays/focus on school-age issues one year and week-ends/focus on adults the next year. We tentatively picked Saturday, March 22, as a target date. Discussion ensued regarding a community survey to determine desired presenters at the health fair. Tim suggested we could do a survey some weekend day from Coghill’s store. This seems a good strategy for catching a wide cross section of the community.
Various possible issues/presenters discussed included:
Resource Center For Parents & Children or TCC for FASD. Maryellen has to call RCPC anyway so she will ask if they could be available, as she understands that they recently received funding to do education outside of the Fairbanks area.
Tim said she believed Shauna Mitchell from Head Start would want to do Parent Education.
Tim will also contact Susan Kaufman to inquiry about EMT and Fire Safety.
Railbelt would be interested in doing Tobacco Education.
It was also suggested we find someone to do a booth on diabetes.
Kat will call the school to see if March 22 conflicts with any scheduled school activities; ditto Nenana Native Council. Tim will call the city office and Marilyn at Coghill’s, also check to see if the Civic Center is available. Tim will also check with Phyllis to see if our proposed date has already been taken by any other community or entity for their health fairs. Miles suggested that we do an annual community needs survey to plan for the following year’s event. We have some cash left from funds raised last year for food and fees; Kat will check how much.
Operation Ho Ho Ho – Railbelt is in the last stages of planning and preparation for this annual event. We have sixty families; gifts have been purchased and wrapped. We have three vehicles running up to Fairbanks to pick up food from Santa’s Clearinghouse the morning of Thursday, December 13th and will assemble the food boxes at George Hall starting around noon. All interested community members are encouraged to meet us at George Hall. As usual, Traci will be bringing the pizza.
WELLNESS THOUGHT
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth (c’mon, let’s laugh a little bit!!!!)
OLD BUSINESS: None
NEW BUSINESS: There will be NO WIN meetings December 25th nor January 1st due to those Tuesdays falling on the holidays.
Updates/Announcements:
Maryellen announced that she called about the school-based tobacco prevention grants and was told that the grants are already one year into a three year grant cycle but she was encouraged by the state tobacco people to look at the grant parameters anyway. They are sending the info to her including a sample of the grant and she will forward it to the school when she gets it.
Tim announced that Carl has received three ham radios from the Amateur Radio Club in Fairbanks. The radios are for emergency communication. They came with a laptop which can be used to access the internet via the ham system to receive e-mails and graphics such as maps, etc. He also culled the old amateur radio books, sold some on e-bay and will use the funds to purchase new amateur radio handbooks.
Friday night, 6 PM, K-6th grade students Winter Concert in the pit at NCPS.
Next Tuesday 5 P.M the community is invited to have dinner with the students at NSLC.
The Christmas Bazaar and Community Meal will be December 13in the school cafeteria.