Here is a great story of one person's passion turned on to help others! Hope you are inspired by it.
Teresa

"I never thought it could happen. Having struggled with an Eating Disorder for
five years of my life, and never wanting anyone to know about it, I never could
have imagined being up on that stage.
Coinciding with National Eating Disorder Awareness Week I, Madi O’Dell,
decided to make an impact in my school and the surrounding area. I organized an entire week of awareness
getting the counseling department, administration, coaches, community members,
and teachers involved. Before the week began we hung posters with statistics
and encouraging messages around the school.
We also made informational notes and posted them in all the bathrooms
explaining eating disorders and where to get help and more information. On Monday we opened the week with a
scholarship contest (prizes provided by The Childrens Hospital Colorado) that
included three different categories. The
categories included writing, art, and multimedia and students were allowed to
enter one or more of them. There were
different prizes to be given in each category ranging from $10 to $200. We had many great entries and were thrilled
to see so many students participate in the event. Tuesday was our big push in the school. Dr. Hagman (from the Eating Disorders Unit at
Childrens Hospital Colorado), myself, and a few other individuals helped to put
on a presentations open to any class that wanted to attend. We ran it six times (one presentation for
each period) and had somewhere between 1,000 and 1,200 students attended that day. Great questions were asked and it was a huge
success. Wednesday night I spoke at my
church’s youth group which reached about another 200 students. After service I got the opportunity to talk
with a bunch of girls and we were able to help get them the help they
needed. On Thursday was more geared
towards the community. We invited many
club sports teams, parents, and other community members to join us for an open
forum discussion at the school. We had a
panel that included long time strugglers of the disease, as well as me and
another student, Dr. Hagman, and my mom.
We were all given time to share our stories and then opened it up to the
audience for questions. Thursday night
was also the night we awarded all of the Scholarship Contest prizes, so individuals
who entered got an opportunity to be recognized by community members. Overall the week was way more successful than
I could have ever imagined. We reached
over 1,500 people and helped to educate the community about what Eating
Disorders are and who they affect. I
have received several letters and emails expressing peoples gratitude as well
as had many people come up to me personally asking how they, themselves can get
help or how they can help a friend. I
have learned and grown so much from this experience and I know that without the
help from my school, teachers, doctors, counselors, coaches, family, and
friends I would not be in the place I am today.
Thank you Children's Hospital for saving my life."

This Mannequin is Cool

Yet another wonderful project by 2 highschool students in Northeast, Colorado. Here is this week's post - Thanks for sharing, you guys.

In September 2011 we (M and J) met with Linda, a local audiologist who had an idea for a community project. That was the first time that either of us became aware of how hearing loss occurs and how susceptible people are to this threat. In recent years, personal music devices like IPods and MP3 players have caused an increased concern for the health of America’s youth.
In response, we built Viviana using guidelines from the Dangerous Decibels program. Viviana is a mannequin that works as a sound level meter. This was accomplished by replacing one of Viv’s ears, rewiring a sound level meter, and running a cord through Viv to the meter. By doing this, Viviana can now read the volume of personal music devices by simply placing a headphone in her ear.
Viviana has visited the Melissa Memorial Hospital Health Fair in Holyoke, the Fleming Wellness Fair, last year’s fourth grade classes at Holyoke Elementary school, and the Holyoke High school. We are hoping to again visit the schools in Holyoke and the Melissa Memorial Hospital Health Fair. In addition we have contacted Dangerous Decibels and hope to expand out sphere of influence in Colorado. 9HealthFair contacted us and asked that we add something to the CHANGE blog. You can check out Viv at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Viviana/155840237809109 or come see her yourself around Holyoke, CO.

We had a great post from a local High School Student about their project. Check it out and their concert video too.
From Rangeview HS student...

Last year Rangeview High School's Entrepreneurship class started a mental health awareness campaign. With the help of the Carson J Spencer Foundation and Junior Achievement our class developed a whole new schema for suicide and mental health issues like depression. Over the course of the school year my classmates and I learned how to detect if someone is contemplating suicide by using a three-step system called Q. P. R. (question, persuade, and refer). We also learned how to relay the message of suicide prevention in a safe way that did not glorify or normalize suicide. With these new skills the class set out to solve teen suicide by way of attacking bullying in our school. Our class developed a needs assessment that was handed out to a variety of students at our school; with it we determined that bullying was a serious issue as well as the alarming percentage of students who have contemplated suicide. Our next step was to find or make a product that was easy to sell to our peers and profitable. The idea of wristbands was chosen since many companies and organizations used wristbands to market their ideas. We then came up with our unique slogan, I Choose To Live/I Choose To Love, with the letters of "i" in live and "o" in love to overlap depicting the capitol Greek letter Phi. We then chose the colors green and white to symbolize life and growth and we purchased glow-in-the-dark wristbands to symbolize that all life shines in darkness. Our first purchase of three hundred wristbands sold faster than we predicted and the demand for more in different colors was high. Though our main colors are still green and white we also sell pink and black, white and black, and blue and white. Even though our class won first place for the competition, we made a were more concerned about the impact we had on or community. We administered surveys asking students if they were aware of our mission and if we made an impact in any way. We also held a benefit concert at our school, having each performer wear a wristband. The turn out was great and word of our product spread quickly. Soon after the concert 9 Health Fair wanted to give our wristbands to people participating in their event. Our wristbands and mission statements made an impact on our school community and state. Personally I've grown and learned so much from this experience!

Here is a link to the YouTube video the Rangeview group did about their project.
From Rangeview HS student...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF5UXHaGxEs&feature=related

How to use this Blog

Hi Everyone,

Just so you know I am new to blogging and I bet some of you are too, and this is a unique sort of blog because we are using this form of communication to let students help each other to be creative and make CHANGE for the health of it. So sometimes, we will have guest bloggers and some of them will be students who have done some very cool things. We also hope to have students read and comment on the things we share. For now we will receive your comments and post them daily. That way we can be sure everything that comes in is OK to go out. So you will see your comments in a day or so. Please check back.

We also hope that you will come back often and see what other youth are talking about here.

When you share about your activity or program, it will help the most if you:

• Think about your blog as if you are writing a news article... tell us Who, What, When, Where, How and How much or What happened as a result. If you do not know what happened as a result of your activity you can say that and see if anyone has a suggestion for how you could find out.
• It also helps to understand how you came up with your ideas, like did something happen to make the students or your family interested in CHANGE? Did you do a survey and find out what people thought was important? Did you have a goal you wanted to achieve yourself to make things better?

We will be posting some ideas students have had or that we have read about too, just to keep things moving.

Well that's it for today except for this: Check it out if you haven't seen the.....

Dog on a Skateboard

It looks like so much fun!

Welcome!

CHANGE for the Health of It

This is the first blog on our new youth advocate page. The name was picked by our Youth Advisory Council members who are helping 9Health Fair to develop our youth programs (to apply to be a member of the YAC, call Teresa Jensen at 303-996-2124).

Youth Advisory Council Members 2012

We hope that you will find support in this blog to become an Agent of CHANGE either at your home, school or in your community. There is so much you can do to help people around you reach their full potential as human beings; being healthy in mind, body and spirit is an important place to start.  Small change can add up to big payoffs so don’t be afraid to try something, even something that seems small.

Blog with us when you have questions or ideas you want to try and are looking for someone to talk with about them. Other students, as well as professionals in the health field can comment on your blog and be a lot of help.

Keep blogging as your project unfolds. We want to hear from you so other students can be inspired to help their family, school or community by seeing what you are doing. Great projects are not necessarily big projects and you may win an award from 9Health Fair. Click here to apply or find out what we are looking for.

Some topics to get you started:

• Eating for health
• Being active - exercise
• Sleeping enough
• Relax- keep stress at bay
• Have friends for support
• Create a culture where students can avoid addictive substances and behaviors (drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, and disordered eating)

Activities or projects you could do:

• Healthier lunch menu competitions
• Weekly exercise challenge (or just a yoga class)
• School wide commitment to respect and care
• Stress reduction practice
• Letting your School Board know about what you think is important to change.

Make your project relevant to your community, school or family and your own interests. Work with others, be an advocate for CHANGE! Look here for some of the activities others have done and tell us about your ideas… you can ask others to help you here too.

Here is a tool kit that shows one way to help your school have better lunches and healthier food "Peach" Tool Kit. You can use the same approach for many other topics.