Jefferson County, Colo. - Jefferson County Department of Health and Environment (JCDHE) has announced its 2007 Public Health Champions of the Year. The health department's efforts to enhance health and vitality for the citizens of Jefferson County are supported and sustained each year by the people and communities it serves. This year's group of champions as diverse as they are in their day jobs: P.E. teacher, mayor, therapist, attorney, affordable-housing resident, housing manager, PTA member and a registered nurse, have all worked in their own special way to create a healthier Jefferson County. The 2007 Public Health Champions will be honored at an awards ceremony hosted by the health department, the Jefferson County Board of Health and the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners on Thursday, April 3 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 100 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden, in the Lookout Mountain Room.

JCDHE is fortunate to work and partner with the following Jefferson County 2007 Public Health Champions of the Year:

Creating Healthy, Sustainable Communities: Mayor of Golden, Jacob Smith, and former Mayor of Arvada, Ken Fellman
Maintaining and enhancing health and quality of life in Jefferson County for future generations takes vision, planning, policy making and the commitment to make it happen. Golden Mayor Jacob Smith and Arvada's former mayor, Ken Fellman, are both leaders in municipal government who have placed health and wellness at the top of their list of planning initiatives. These two community leaders are champions for their work in creating healthy sustainable communities in Jefferson County.

Golden Mayor Jacob Smith encouraged Golden City Council to develop a plan to protect and enhance Golden's quality of life back in December 2006. Today, the 10-year Golden Sustainability Initiative is a model for similar efforts in Aurora, Arvada, Crested Butte, Cherry Hills Village and other communities in Colorado. Mayor Smith's vision for and encouragement of the Golden Sustainability Initiative are largely credited for its success. While many cities have created sustainability plans, under the leadership of Mayor Smith, Golden used a highly distinctive bottom-up, grassroots approach led by citizens to change city policy. Citizen groups came together and established aggressive goals for the community around such issues as transportation, water, energy efficiency and renewable energy, solid waste and recycling, buildings, and economic health, education and communication. More than 200 citizens turned out for the first public meeting in February 2007 to give their feedback on the proposed goals. The meeting was followed by months of intensive discussion and research by more than 60 dedicated citizen groups. The Golden Sustainability Initiative has been featured and applauded by Natural Capitalism Solutions, a global leader in sustainable economic development. Mayor Jacob Smith's commitment to the health of the Golden community, its citizens and the future vitality of the region is exemplified by his dedication to the Golden Sustainability Initiative and planning with health in mind.

Ken Fellman -As a representative of the City of Arvada, an elected official of Jefferson County and a member of the Metro Mayors Caucus, former mayor of Arvada Ken Fellman has been an outstanding champion of health and wellness in Jefferson County. Mr. Fellman's courage and leadership in protecting the health of communities is well documented by Arvada's passage of a municipal ban on smoking in public places in 2003, long before the current statewide ban. His commitment to the health of Jefferson County's residents continues today with his leadership in making health a priority for the larger Mayors Caucus in the metro area. Mr. Fellman was instrumental in forming the Metro Denver Health and Wellness Commission. In this process, he has donated countless hours to helping shape the strategic plan and to chairing the Healthiest Communities Team of the Metro Denver Wellness Commission. Fellman challenged neighboring Wheat Ridge to a "step challenge" in which city staff's competed for the most steps taken per city. He also worked with Arvada schools to heighten awareness of both the health benefits of walking and biking to school by participating in International Walk/Bike to School Day. Mr. Fellman understands the role community planning and policies can have on the health of its citizens and is a 2007 public health champion both in his hometown of Arvada, and throughout the metro area.

Promoting the Health of Jefferson County Children with Special Needs

Cindy French, Occupational Therapist

Cindy, an occupational therapist, collaborates with JCDHE Nutrition Services and the Health Care Program for Children with Special Needs to provide essential Nutrition Services to hundreds of the counties most vulnerable citizens. Cindy works with county children with mild eating issues to children who have highly complex, multiple disabilities. Her ability to listen closely to the families she serves, individualize feeding therapies, along with her persistent "can do" attitude has helped many Jefferson County children with special needs overcome feeding challenges. Cindy's recent work with a Jefferson County family serves as a perfect example and involves a set of twins, a boy and a girl, age 12. The twins were born very premature and have needed many interventions throughout their life. The family sought help with feeding issues both in hospitals and private feeding clinics with no success. The school nutritionists also tried but were minimally successful. The health department's Nutrition Program for Children with Special Needs teamed up with Cindy, who began working with the family weekly in their home. She took the time needed to learn more about them and their individual needs. Today, both of the twins are eating what would be considered a typical meal at least once a day - an egg, some yogurt, some cereal and milk or juice! Recently, during a visit with the JCDHE dietitian coordinating their care, the children's mother broke into tears as she told about her 12-year-olds, saying they were hungry and asking for food for the first time in their lives. Cindy truly is a champion in her work with the community of children with special needs in Jefferson County.

Promoting the Health of Jefferson County Families

Golden Family of Churches Health Ministries

The Golden Family of Churches Health Ministries has worked to improve the health of Jefferson County's children and families since 1999. It was then that parish nurse Karen Setzer invited other Golden churches to join a health ministry. Ten Golden churches now work together to enhance the health of Jefferson County citizens by strengthening the concept of parish nursing, sharing resources, programs, speakers and working together on health-related activities. In 2007, and for the past several years the Golden Family of Churches Health Ministries has prioritized the need for childhood immunizations in the county. They secured funding from the Salvation Army and partnered with JCDHE immunization program to provide coupons to parishioners for free childhood immunizations at JCDHE clinics. The Ministries' parish nurses and volunteers distributed these coupons through their annual Health Fair and through their affiliations with school nurses throughout the Golden area. In addition, the Health Ministries has joined the Jefferson County Health Care Access Coalition and participated regularly throughout 2007, bringing invaluable information on services they can provide and on other community services available to our shared clientele. For example, the ministries' Interfaith Hospitality Network and their Chronic Pain and Grief support groups are important resources for those in need. Golden Family of Churches Health Ministries has made impressive efforts to better serve and support the mental health and health needs of parishioners through blood drives, health fairs, support groups, workshops and seminars and is a public health champion for its work promoting the health of Jefferson County's children and families.

Bringing Health and Wellness to Affordable Housing Residents

Scott Romero and Barbara Leyba

The Foothills Green Affordable Housing Complex in Lakewood is home to over 75 low-income Jefferson County residents, and thanks to Housing Manager Scott Romero and resident Barbara Leyba, it is also a place where health and wellness are encouraged and supported. Scott and Barbara partnered with JCDHE's Tobacco Prevention Initiative and the Jefferson Center for Mental Health to form the Foothills Green Wellness Committee. In June 2007, the committee effectively planned, organized and implemented a wellness fair for residents of the affordable-housing complex. Scott Romero's background in health promotion and his experience with empowering low/moderate-income families led to the formation of the resident-driven Wellness Committee. Barbara Leyba, representing the Foothills residents, brought enthusiasm, organization and hard work to make the wellness fair and subsequent activities a success. The committee gathered information about health interests from their neighbors and designed a wellness fair tailored to the needs of Foothills Green's families. For example, residents spoke about not having enough money to repair broken bikes or purchase bikes for their children, let alone having funds to purchase safe recreation helmets. The committee listened and enlisted the Colorado Derailleur Collaborative to help teach youth how to repair their own bikes as well as how to get good used bikes for free. Helmets were donated and raffled off to youth, who were then taught how to fit and wear a helmet correctly. The fair featured over 15 health and wellness booths, activities and demonstrations that provided relevant health information and resources. The energy and enthusiasm of the committee members who planned the event as well as the residents who participated in the wellness fair have led to an ongoing series of health promotion activities offered to residents at the complex. As a result of the success of the wellness fair, the Second Annual Foothills Green Wellness Fair is being planned for June 2008. This event may serve as a model for other HUD/affordable property owners who wish to support the health and well-being of their tenants. Scott Romero and Barbara Leyba are public health champions for their efforts to bring health and wellness to affordable housing residents.

Promoting Healthy Eating and Active Living

Brenda Christy, a parent and PTA vice president of the Wheat Ridge Articulation Area, knows how to get elementary school children to get active. As a parent of students at Stober Elementary, Brenda Christy supported the school's effort to implement a mini-grant, the "Stober Stampede" pedometer contest. The contest was made possible by LiveWell Wheat Ridge, a JCDHE project funded by LiveWell Colorado and designed to increase the healthy eating and active living behaviors for the residents and workers of Wheat Ridge. When the 188 students in third through sixth grades and 22 staff were inspired to get moving, they embraced the challenge and collectively walked 27,061 miles. The pedometers kept accurate count of steps walked for six weeks, teachers rallied with instruction on how to use the pedometers, mileage forms to be tallied at the end of each week and math conversion lessons to determine number of miles walked. Brenda Christy was instrumental in making it all happen. She enlisted a dozen PTA parent volunteers and the school principal to take a cart to each classroom every Friday to collect the forms and reward students with a different colored foot charm for each ten-mile increment they completed. The students took great pride in collecting these fun charms, and got a tremendous amount of exercise in the process! The students recently gathered for an assembly to accept awards, T shirts and applause from organizers, teachers, parents and their classmates. In addition to promoting and organizing the Stober Stampede, Brenda serves on the Coordinated School Health Advisory Board responsible for promoting and monitoring the implementation of the District's School Wellness Policy. Brenda Christy is a public health champion for her advocacy work to promote healthy eating and active living in Jefferson County Schools.

Kathy Springer, a physical education teacher at Wilmore-Davis Elementary in Wheat Ridge, is an excellent role model for physical fitness and helping students understand the importance of participating in physical activities on a regular basis. She is a public health champion for her promoting the physical and emotional well-being of students in Jefferson County through physical activity. It was Kathy Springer's idea to change the morning structure at Wilmore-Davis from students waiting outside classrooms for fifteen minutes to promoting physical welfare through a Wilmore-Davis Warrior Walk. The Warrior Walk allows students to walk along a quarter-mile path on the playground for up to fifteen minutes each school day, and on any given day, Kathy is out there walking along with students. The number of laps are recorded each day in class and students are recognized for meeting certain mileage milestones, further promoting the benefits of physical activity. Kathy also sponsors an intramural program for students encouraging physical activity outside of school, and is a dedicated sponsor of the Wilmore-Davis track team. In addition, Kathy sponsors the US National Fitness Challenge program. In this role, Kathy encourages and supports students to achieve a number of physical fitness activities in order to be recognized for the national fitness award. Under Kathy's leadership, many of Wilmore Davis's fifth- and sixth-graders meet the national requirements. Kathy Springer is a 2007 public health champion for her work promoting physical activity in Jefferson County's children.

Preparing for Public Health Emergencies

Nicole Teft, Human Resource Director for Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, saw an opportunity to better prepare the college of art and design for a public health emergency and on her own initiative made it happen. Nicole took it upon herself to develop a pandemic plan for the school with limited resources but a lot of initiative and dedication. While her focus was on pandemics, she also included all-hazards response concepts into the overall response plan and worked with JCDHE's emergency preparedness program to fill any gaps. Nicole Teft's planning, and education of staff at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design is invaluable in better preparing the college's response to almost any emergency. In addition, Nicole also participated in the county pandemic planning committee, where she shared her plan with other county agencies as well as private business' in the process of developing plans. The outcome is a better prepared Jefferson County. Nicole's positive attitude and steadfast resolve to better prepare county citizens and businesses for the potential of a large scale public health emergency are to be commended. Nicole has truly been a leader in public health emergency preparedness.