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‘ Million-Dollar’ Attack on Overweight Here
Growing National Menace With Indiana 12th Worse in Nation; Wells 40% Kids Rate Alarming

By JIM BARBIERI
A finalist for a sought $500,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, with announcement expected almost any day soon, Wells County’s “Operation Wellness applicants have seen their cause become one of the nation’s most pressing health concerns.
“Operation Wellness’’ is a collaborative effort between the Caylor-Nickel Foundation, Ball State University and the three Wells County School Districts.
It is aimed at the soaring local problem -- part of a soaring state and national problem -- of overweight and obesity harm to health, especially for children and youths.
As told previously, Caylor-Nickel Foundation has lined up funds totalling $500,000 here to match one-for-one a prospective half-million grant ($125,000 a year for four years), if such can be obtained as requested from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation. (That would mean a total $1 million prospective investment here.)
The application to the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, as submitted late last summer by Ball State for the Wells County project, has cleared hurdles successively in advancing to the final rung from an original 313 applicants.
One of the preliminary steps for the final submission on the grant was a major community forum of school, governmental and health field people and other citizens, as was held last August at the Parlor City Country Club with a sizable turnout including Bluffton Mayor Ted Ellis, plus Northern Wells Schools Supt. Michael Sailsbery, Southern Wells Schools Supt. Neil Potter, and Bluffton-Harrison Assistant Supt. Jon Bennett.
Nationwide, as told to this forum by Suzanne Crouch, program director for the Indiana State Department of Education, there is an epidemic of obesity.
Estimated is that 61 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese. Further, 13 percent of children aged 6 to 11 years and 14 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 19 years are overweight.
The numbers have been growing in a startling way.
Judy Rose, state nutritionist for the Indiana State Department of Health, brought out more.
In Indiana, an estimated 21 percent of adults are obese -- the 12th highest rate in the nation. Indiana, in fact, has been as high as third worst in the nation and the situation has worsened even if being out-distanced or “out-weighed” by a few states with even worse trends.
And, alarmingly, data collected in 2001 during the Caylor-Nickel Foundation-sponsored Health Tour included these results:
-- 40 percent (actually 135 out of 337) among Wells County fourth graders were either at-risk for or overweight by classification standards. (89 or 26 percent were overweight and 46 or 14 percent were at risk).
Dr. Carol Friesen of Ball State led in the local action needs portion of the program.
In a summary from the forum -- including round table discussion in groups of seven or eight at each of a dozen or more tables -- it was noted that despite the proved benefits of physical activity, more than 60 percent of American adults, and more than one-third of young people in grades 9 to 12, do not get enough physical activity to provide health benefits.
Promoting regular physical activity and healthy eating, and creating an environment that supports these behaviors, are essential to reduce the epidemic of obesity and achieve health benefits, it was affirmed in the forum.
Discussed were school practices and policies plus their impacts regarding food and exercise issues pertaining to health.
Pointed out was that the U.S. Surgeon General recently published a “Call to Action” that encouraged combined community approaches to such problems. The Caylor-Nickel Foundation, Wells Schools and Ball State combination fits this approach.
Operation Wellness in Wells County will focus on the cited big three needs -- physical activity, nutrition education and healthy lifestyle changes across all ages here.
Making up “Operation Wellness” will be:
-- “Wellness Prep,” focusing on students in 4th to 8th grade.
-- “Wellness University,” focusing on high school students and above.
Both programs will target individuals whose Health Risk Assessment profile indicates they are “at risk” and/or those who indicate a low level of physical activity, it was concluded.
Wells County leaders, other residents, school staff people and professionals from nearby Ball State will work together for maximum resources, skills and ideas, it was agreed.
John Stead, executive director of the Caylor-Nickel Foundation, related that the Foundation’s resources on their own are not sufficient for this large a task -- thus the major grant effort.
Affirmed further was that community input is welcomed as the Caylor-Nickel Foundation and Ball State representatives develop and refine “Operation Wellness.”