M
arch has been a whirlwind of a month. I wrapped up another Stay Strong Stay Healthy class in Neodesha. As always participants love this fall prevention class. I had reports of “feeling taller” after class. (In addition to strength, balance and flexibility focus I encourage them to sit or stand tall and engage their core) I have individuals tell me they lost weight and I have a small group of them planning to meet and continue working out together!
Walk Kansas is also underway. The entire FCS team work diligently to plan activities, walking opportunities, troubleshoot the website and engage participants to move more during the eight-week program. Participants also receive the traditional weekly Walk Kansas Newsletter. This year’s incentive for each participant is a small flash light that would attach to a key ring.
The Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge was a success! The YEC Series is a NetWork Kansas program, presented in partnership with the Kansas State University Center for Entrepreneurship and the Kansas Masons to provide prize money to YEC event winners and access to the state-wide competition, the Kansas Entrepreneurship Challenge. I had five businesses participate this year. One from Chetopa High School and the rest from Labette County High School.
Do you wonder what kind of prep goes into planning this event? I coordinate with the school on the date that works best for them and the fewest conflicts with other activities. I find nine judges to judge three categories. The business plan, the interview and the tradeshow sections all have three different judges to read and score the plan, listen to their pitch and ask questions about their display and education judges on their business. Having this many perspectives gives the participant multiple opportunities to get their business plan and ideas across. The H.E.L.P. (Hometown Economic Leadership Program) group works with Network Kansas, which is the driving force behind this program, to access funding to give reward money to the top three businesses. Lunch is also a task to take care of along with setting up for the day and tear down. Contact the newspaper is also important to remember so that the event has media coverage and hopefully draws more participants in the future. As the day goes on scores are then input into a system and the system tabulates the winners. While this is going on usually the guest speaker, a local entrepreneur speaks to the youth, which I also contact. Once the event is over I put together a report of the day and submit it to our NetWork Kansas representative. I have follow up emails with the participants and encourage those teams that did not win to enter for a wildcard chance at the state competition. This year M & R Technologies won the local event and the state event will take place at the end of April, which leads to much more coordination between the youth, parents and school.
Barbara and I have just finished a program called Eating Healthy on a Budget. This program we put together for a lunch and learn at Labette Health. We have since had two more requests for this program and one of those requests is with KVC and we will be educating foster parents in a two-hour class in June. However, in March we gave this program for the first time to a room full of people. Barbara and I engaged the audience with active listening questions, hands on activities and research based educational slide helping them to plan, purchase and prepare. Many times individuals may go to the store hungry, without a list or without a menu for the week. Grocery shopping like that hurts your pocketbook. We provided tools and steps to successfully plan their menu, check their cabinets, create a list, check price points and shop the sale circulars to find the best menu at the best price. With a little bit of time and effort along with planning you too can be a smart savings shopper! Reach out to either of us for more information!
four key themes tend to emerge.