'Fun' menu validates the point
8/6/2009Sunday's feature "Cooking up fun!" listed the daily menu for the participants in the YMCA's culinary camp.
Day 1: Sugar cookies with chocolate candy on top.
Day 2: Taco meat with crushed tortilla chips.
Day 3: Hot dogs, s'mores and cupcakes.
Day 4: "Healthy Day" featured a concoction of Oreo cookies, pudding, and gummy worms vs. celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins. The choice is yours!
Day 5: Monkey bread, "plenty of pancakes," and orange smoothies.
The article emphasized that math skills, safety issues, and health concerns were part of the curriculum. Fun was obviously another main ingredient in the program. But after reading your front-page article that same day entitled "Obesity taking toll on U.S. health care," I wondered if there are still lessons to be learned.
Janet Nielsen
Maumee
As leaders in Congress continue to hammer out health-care reform, Sunday's Blade article "Obesity taking toll on U.S. health care" raises an important question: How can we afford a national health-care system with the rate of obesity rising to epidemic levels?
Obesity often leads to more serious and costly illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. So it's concerning that only 47 percent of Ohio adults get sufficient physical activity and nearly two-thirds of Ohio adults were deemed to be overweight or obese in 2006. Even more alarming, obesity rates are skyrocketing among our children and teenagers, tripling in the last 20 years.
The article effectively points out that while the human cost of obesity is staggering, the economic cost is also great. Ohio's cost for dealing with inactivity and poor nutrition is an estimated $3.3 billion annually. More than half of that, $1.75 billion, is paid by the taxpayer through the cost of Medicaid and Medicare. According to the Milken Institute, chronic diseases, many caused by poor diet and lack of exercise, cost Ohio's economy more than $56 billion in 2003 in treatment expenditures and lost productivity.
The Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio and more than 100 health-care providers, patient organizations, and business and labor groups in Ohio have joined a national coalition called the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease to educate our lawmakers on the need for policies that promote better health and wellness.
The group and its members recognize that obesity and the chronic diseases that typically are the result of obesity can be prevented. Unless we as a nation become more health-conscious and address factors that are truly driving the cost of health care, I question whether health-care reform will be sustainable.
W. Scott Fry
President and CEO
Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio
Oh goody! Just what we need: another "megachurch" in Toledo. If CedarCreek really wants to be a good neighbor, it should keep operating the South Toledo YMCA as a family recreation facility. I am relieved that they do not plan to take city park land to use as a parking lot.
Barbara Carr
Oregon
In response to the letter writer from Maumee regarding how many churches in South Toledo are enough with the South Toledo YMCA closing and being given to a local church, I support Councilman D. Michael Collins and his position that another vibrant church is South Toledo would be an asset.
A vibrant, God-honoring, gospel-preaching, and teaching church in this city should always be welcome. To answer the writer's question as to how many churches in South Toledo is enough, the answer is: "There are never enough."
Vince Wuwert
Yermo Drive
Since they are giving the South Toledo YMCA away, why not give it to the people who value and use it the most? I'm sure they can run it for much less. I'm sure they won't need a six-figure salary either.
JoAnne VanSparrentak
Grand Rapids, Ohio
I am a member of the YMCA of Toledo and the president of New Hope Christian Foundation in Toledo. I want to express my support for the Y's great people, dedicated leaders, and their commitment to Toledo and its residents.
I have had the pleasure of meeting many of the employees and am amazed at the level of commitment to our community and youth. I do not know of any organizations in the Toledo area working harder and doing more with their resources than the Toledo YMCA.
In a time of challenge it takes leadership that keeps its eyes on the vision and purpose of the organization to serve its members and the community. The Y received news of major cutbacks of funding for the youth in our area. Its leadership has embraced this news and crafted plans to continue to offer as many services as possible. I for one am proud of the leadership for taking a stand and doing the right thing. They have kept the youth in mind first.
Al Caperna
Bowling Green
In the first half of my life, I was raised in the Catholic church and never once cracked open the Bible to read it. For the first 10 years of my married life, I attended my spouse's Protestant church and usually daydreamed during the service. Then we started attending CedarCreek Church four years ago. I became a daily Bible reader. I volunteered at the church. I let God become the greatest presence in my life.
In a city saturated with drugstores and carryouts and a glut of empty buildings falling into disrepair, wouldn't it be nice to have a positive tenant move into the YMCA facility? I'd like to think of this as a "one God fits all" world and that there can never be too many churches in this city.
South Toledo would be blessed to have CedarCreek as a neighbor.
Nancy Seybold
Berkeley Drive
I am amazed at the negative reporting going on concerning the giving away of the South Toledo YMCA to CedarCreek Church.
On one point I can defend the Y's decision. CedarCreek is one of the few groups that could afford to fix up the building. Ask about the sewer problems. Look at the agreement to have a Y day care there. It really is a no-brainer, except if you're looking to be a negative news carrier.
Do you know what the C in YMCA stands for? I just hope more failing or moving churches look at the example the Y has set and, rather than selling a building our God already paid for once, we would gift it to a younger, stronger work instead of asking God to pay for it twice.
Congrats to the Y for being bold. Shame on The Blade for being so negative.
Bill Herzog
Holland
Concerning the Professor Henry Louis Gates and Sgt. James Crowley issue, it is truly refreshing that two men of different backgrounds can be very civil toward each other once they leave their testosterone out of the equation and their adrenaline level is normal.
George W. Weidner
Barrows Street