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Shrinkdown
organizers prepare
for making Greenwood thinner
January
4, 2006
By VIC
MacDONALD
Index-Journal
regional editor
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| Participating in Tuesday’s
kickoff news conference for the Greater Greenwood
Shrinkdown, from left, are: Kitty Lewis, Lander
University; state Rep. Gene Pinson; Fran Friday,
Greenwood Family YMCA; Gray Stallworth, YMCA CEO; John
Heydel, Self Regional Medical Center CEO; Dan Ball,
Lander president; Mayor Floyd Nicholson; and Rosemary
Bell, Self Regional. | A
thinner, lighter Greenwood will be a work in progress starting
Monday.
That’s the target day for the Greater Greenwood
Shrinkdown, commencing with registration and an initial
weigh-in at the PEES Gym at Lander University. Program
organizers gathered there Tuesday to mark the day Shrinkdown
programs across the state were kick-started.
Shrinkdown
South Carolina, involving 11 YMCAs statewide, is the only
weight reduction and health information program of its kind in
the United States.
The Greenwood Family YMCA has joined in
a partnership with Lander and Self Regional Medical Center to
bring the eight-week program to people in the community who
think they need to lose weight, exercise more and develop a
healthier lifestyle in general.
“The focus of YMCAs around
the country is to pull together these partnerships,” Gray
Stallworth, CEO of the Greenwood Family YMCA, said. “Lander
and Self Regional are coming together with the Y of Greenwood
in a program that also involves USC, Presbyterian College, the
Upper Pee Dee Rock Hill area and the Lowcountry in Beaufort
and Berkeley counties.”
South Carolina ranks among the
nation’s leaders in obesity rates, Stallworth said, and a goal
of YMCAs and their partners across the state is reducing that
health-hampering statistic.
To that end, the Greater
Greenwood Shrinkdown starts weighing participants and passing
along health-improving information from 3-7 p.m. Monday at the
PEES Gym. The first 500 people to register get a free T-shirt.
Weigh-ins then will be available each Friday, and Health Talk
programs will be each Monday and Thursday for the Shrinkdown’s
eight weeks.
Stallworth said the Shrinkdown will stress
healthy lifestyles and accountability through the weigh-ins.
“All of the elements are there to make it a successful
effort,” he said. “It’s not just pounds lost, although that’s
a good indicator. It can’t be said that Greenwood is not
fighting back against this obesity issue.”
Obesity is an
important health risk to tackle because the condition can
worsen diseases such as diabetes, John Heydel, CEO of Self
Regional Medical Center, said.
“We’re taking this
seriously,” Heydel said. “We hope that hundreds, if not
thousands, of people will take part.” “Lander is in the
business of health — mental health, actually, but physical
health, too,” Lander President Dan Ball said. “We’re on a
health kick at Lander. We hope to make this an annual
event.”
The initial Shrinkdown event at the PEES Gym on
Monday corresponds with the first day of spring semester
classes at Lander.
Once the Shrinkdown gets under way and
weigh-ins are conducted, communities can chart their progress
compared to the other areas of the state by logging onto http://www.scshrinkdown.com/.
Weight loss will be charted in each community, without using
the names of individual participants, and people signed up for
the Shrinkdown can chart their own progress by logging on with
their individualized password.
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