Wilkes Is Still Wild About Wellness
by Philip L. Graitcer

Ground zero for Wilkes Wild About Wellness is the Washington-Wilkes consolidated school system.

Gym teacher Terry Hamon leads about 45 8th graders through a game on indoor tag ball. Since Wilkes Wild About Wellness was started, seven years ago, all middle school students have a daily physical exercise class. She says, "In this game you're pretty much doing everything, your hand and eye coordination, agility, dodging, getting their heart rate up, running."

Down the hall, lunch hour is just finishing up. Cafeteria manager Nana Boatwright and her staff served about 750 lunches today. According to her, "We try to offer more fresh fruits and vegetables and we have a fully staffed salad bar and we use light dressings. It's a pretty busy place, We?re trying to get them to eat those 5 fruits and vegetables every day and we try to offer less salt, less sugar in our preparation."

According to Boatwright, the students don't even realize that some of the more fattening things have been taken out of the lunches and substituted with healthier items, like low fat milk.

Coach Russell Morgan, Washington-Wilkes' head football coach for the past 20 years, caught a lucky break a few years back when he had his cholesterol checked at the wellness program's annual School Health Fair.

"The nurse there that was checking me said you need to see you doctor immediately, your cholesterol was way too high, He told me that I could stroke out any day. My cholesterol was extremely high and he put me on some medication, and I had to change my diet, my eating, and I lost about 20 pounds just staying away from grease and fried foods."

Today there are other wellness activities going on in Washington, too. Early this morning at the Parks and Recreation department, about a dozen senior citizens walked laps around the gym. At the new gym, just off the town square, exercisers have been pumping iron since dawn.

Healthy living wasn't always a part of the Washington-Wilkes community. In 2001, 81 percent of the residents of Wilkes County were obese or overweight according to an MCG study. Because of that obesity, Washington-Wilkes residents had higher rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes, too.

According to Dr. Lester Johnston, an internist and pediatrician in Washington, reducing obesity, is a straightforward two step process - eating less and exercising. Scott Lewis is the State Farm insurance agent in Washington. Three years ago, when he weighted 334 pounds, he attended a wellness program at his church and it got him things about choices and the negative effect of those choices.

Lewis now weighs 192 pounds. The wellness program gave him the knowledge he needed to lose weight; his own desire to live healthier gave him the motivation.

Funding for Wilkes Wild About Wellness ran out in 2005. There was no money to pay for the educators and when program publicly ended, leaders worried that without a formal program in place, would the residents would slide back into their old habits of not exercising and not eating healthy foods.

But for many, good eating and exercise habits had already become routine. Real change has occurred. At the high school, two of the three soft drink machines are gone. Enrollment for the walking clubs, the flex and stretch programs and kids' Tiger Tracks programs is full. The Parks and Recreation Department has an increased its budget and added more staff. And at the churches, alongside Bible study and healthier suppers, aerobics classes are being offered for women and couples.

It's still to early to tell if the wellness program has reduced obesity in Wilkes. Researchers from UGA and MCG are planning to survey the community.

And although you can still see overweight people on the square, they are parking their cars further away from the shops and walking the extra distance. Community wellness seems to have taken hold. According to Dr. Johnston, "Washington is on the cusp of great change. There is a huge potential here. So Washington is definitely heading in the right direction. I think the cup is half full and not half empty."

And hopefully that cup will be filled with skim milk.