Center for Excellence in Rural Health-Hazard

Delta Rural Project focuses on improving health care in W.Ky.

BY ALICIA CARMICHAEL − CONTRIBUTING WRITER

MADISONVILLE − Long before President Obama signed the school nutrition bill into law in the hopes of ending childhood obesity in our country, the Trover Foundation was working toward the same goal.

"We have 58 schools − about 23,000 students − officially on our books, participating in our wellness program," said Kelcey Rutledge, director of Kentucky’s Delta Rural Project, a federally funded community outreach program developed by Trover to promote wellness among elementary school children in the state’s Mississippi River Delta region, among other work.

In addition to a fitness component called Take 10!, which provides children the opportunity to do 10 minutes of exercise twice during their school day, four times each week, the wellness program also includes bullying awareness and prevention and dental education.

Stephanie Hamilton, a school nurse who heads up the wellness program at Carr Elementary in Fulton, says Take 10! has been great for students.

"The kids enjoy it so much," she said. "It’s a good way for them to get a break when they need it. It’s not something that’s hard for them. They ask the teachers, ‘Can we have a Take 10!? We need a break.’"

The breaks, which include exercises that teachers build into their curriculum, help the children burn off energy and relax so they can focus on their studies. In a school where there is not an obesity problem, this is proof that exercise is good even for slender kids, Hamilton said.

Several teachers "have actually said they can tell the difference in the classroom" behavior, said Hamilton, who, like all of the folks who head up Delta wellness programs in local schools, is called a school champion.

In addition, Carr Elementary and the other schools that participate in the wellness program get incentives from Kentucky Delta Rural Project to buy sports equipment.

"They’ve been wonderful for our system," Hamilton said. "Every single year we’ve gotten some form of incentive in terms of sports equipment you can’t buy when you’re a small system."

With the thousands of incentive dollars Carr Elementary has received, the school has been able to buy dance videos, balls, games and many other items that encourage kids to get moving. This year Kentucky Delta Rural Project also gave participating schools an additional sporting goods kit, Hamilton said.

Such financial and organizational help was especially beneficial to Carr during a time when the school could not afford a full-time physical education teacher, Hamilton said.

But the bullying awareness and prevention and dental education work Kentucky Delta Rural Project provides for schools is no less important.

"It really hits" home for the kids through a yearly tour Kentucky Delta Rural Project does with help from specialists who talk to fourth graders about all aspects of their wellness program, Hamilton said.

The program is in schools in Ballard, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Christian, Crittenden, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Hopkins, Livingston, Lyon, Marshall, McLean, McCracken, Muhlenberg, Todd, Trigg, Union and Webster counties. It evolved from a community health outreach program started by Trover in 2001 after Bob Brooks, vice president of education and research for Trover Health System, applied for an Office of Rural Health Policy networking grant.