Diabetes prevention program designed to help local children
The Boys and Girls Club of St. Lucie County and Liberty Medical have joined forces to help children develop healthy habits and avoid diabetes, a dangerous disease that afflicts nearly 26 million Americans, including a growing number of young adults.
At a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the non-profit organization and Liberty Medical kicked off the start of Camp Liberty- the first summer camp in the region to combine the Boys and Girls Clubs of America’s acclaimed “Triple Play” health and wellness program with diabetes education.
As a leading national provider of medical supplies and services to more than one million diabetes patients, Liberty knows all too well that diabetes has reached epidemic proportions and poses a serious risk to children.
“With the incidence rates of diabetes expected to exponentially continue to grow, a big part of it is obesity,” said Joan Kennedy, President of Liberty Medical. “We really need to stop the diabetes epidemic at the children’s level because if we teach them healthy habits you can reduce the incidence of diabetes going forward.”
According to the Boys and Girls Club, today a staggering one-third of American schoolchildren are overweight or obese; in 1960 only four percent of children were obese.
Camp Liberty will teach club members to make healthy food choices and develop exercise routines that, among other benefits, can help them to maintain a healthy weight. It’s all part of Triple Play, a program the Boys and Girls Club of America developed in collaboration with the U-S Department of Health and Human Services. In addition to diet and exercise, the program teaches children other lessons that impact health, such as how to handle stress and form positive relationships.
To augment the Triple Play curriculum with diabetes education, Liberty Medical will send certified diabetes educators to the camp to discuss diabetes and lead children and their parents in cooking classes. Other employees will volunteer their time to coach the sports teams.
“With the school systems cutting physical education down, sometimes to just one day in two weeks, kids today are just not getting the activity and exercise they need to keep fit,” according to Norm Penner, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of St. Lucie County. “Getting kids to stop eating a lot of junk food and fast food and developing a healthy diet are also extremely important. We’re excited to have Liberty Medical’s help so we can get more kids on the right track, and by including parents, also bring these important lessons into the community.”
Uncontrolled diabetes often leads to dangerous complications, such as heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney disease, and premature death. Studies have shown that people with pre-diabetes who maintain a healthy diet and weight and increase their physical activity can prevent or delay Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.
Surrounded by campers donning their new Camp Liberty T-shirts, Kennedy and Penner stood together to cut the ribbon and mark the official start of the camp, their partnership, and broader mission. Herself a mother of two children, Kennedy seemed to fit right in when she later sat down with some of the children and shared some conversation and laughter with them. Reflecting on the significance of Camp Liberty to Liberty Medical, Kennedy added: “I think it’s critical that we not only support diabetes once people are diagnosed but that we have really good programs to try to stop it from happening. As one of the largest employers in St. Lucie County we really want to help make it a healthy community. This is a great example, bringing education, healthy food and exercise into one program for the summer with the kids.”
The day camp runs June 13 through August 5 at the Port St. Lucie Elementary School.