Our Third Conference:
HENOD Awards Announced;
Focus On Healthy Lifestyle
Cross-country walker Rob Sweetgall motivated conference participants. |
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The Health Education Network of Delaware announced it's annual health promotion awards at the Annual Conference on March 21, 2002, in Newark.
The President's Award for 2001 went to Romie Lutz for her work and dedication in making HENOD a successful organization. Romie, who works for Quality Insights of Delaware, was a co-founder of HENOD and has served as newsletter editor, secretary and nominating committee chair. Her hard work made possible the critical first election of officers in 2001.
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Kenneth Saunders (l) and Richard LeGates (c) receive HENOD Awards from Rob Simmons (r) |
Richard LeGates, a retired Daimler-Chrysler manager, and Kenneth Saunders, workers' benefits manager for the United Auto Workers, jointly received an Advocacy Award for their work in support of health promotion. Kenneth and Richard created the Coalition for Healthier Delaware (CHD), and recruited key individuals from businesses, insurers, health care providers, community and government agencies and faith communities. The group's first focus is on diabetes prevention and screening.
Gail Gill, former director of the Flynn Library at the Delaware Academy of Medicine, received a health promotion Advocacy Award. Her efforts advocating for and developing medical library services in Delaware have helped provide accurate medical information to thousands of Delawareans. She made available online training programs, and expanded consumer health resources in public and private libraries as well as medical libraries.
Rob Simmons
Health Educator of the Year |
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The final award of the day went to HENOD founder Rob Simmons, manager of community relations and health education at Christiana Care Health Services. Rob was honored with HENOD's new "Health Educator of the Year" award. Perhaps more than anyone else, HENOD owes its success to the tireless efforts of Rob Simmons. HENOD has grown, always with Rob pushing in front and behind the scenes, from a handful of people in an informal network to a professional membership group with about 100 members. As a health educator, Rob is also active in numerous voluntary organizations and a wide variety of health promotion initiatives and programs.
Congratulations to all of this year's winners for their well deserved awards!
About 100 people attended this year's conference at the MBNA Conference Center in Newark. They heard a keynote address by John Allegrante, PhD, professor of health education at Columbia University and president of the National Center for Health Education. He spoke about cultural, economic and demographic factors that will influence the direction of health education in the next decades. You can visit the National Center for Health Education at www.nche.org.
Van Hubbard, MD, PhD, director of the Division of Nutrition Research at the National Institutes of Health, provided the group with data and suggested strategies for combating the epidemic of obesity and the health consequenes of obesity. For more information about the programs of the National Institutes of Health, visit www.nih.gov.
In the afternoon, participants were led, stimulated and entertained by cross-country walker and author, Rob Sweetgall. Rob is a former Delaware resident, and presented the group with suggestions for promoting walking and other physical activity. He also led the group on a 20-minute walk during the lunch hour. Rob promotes walking by example, as well as through his organization, Creative Walking.
Closing out the day, Paul McGhee, PhD, author and president of The Laughter Remedy, discussed the importance of laughter in stress management and in healing. He also taught the group how to belly laugh, and ended the day with a humorous, but vital, message. More information is available on The Laughter Remedy website.
Thanks!
HENOD gratefully acknowledges the following organizations who have provided financial support for this conference:
Thanks to MBNA America for the use of their beautiful MBNA Bowman Conference Center in Newark.
Mental Health Association in Delaware for providing speaker support for Paul McGhee, PhD.
We also thank our exhibitors for their support:
American Heart Association
American Red Cross of the Delmarva Peninsula
Coventry Healthcare of Delaware, Inc.
Delaware Academy of Medicine
Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition, Inc.
Delaware HIV Consortium
Division of Services for Aging
and Adults with Physical Disabilities
Eugene du Pont Preventive Medicine and Rehabilitation
Institute (Christiana Care)
Mental Health Association in Delaware
Produce for Better Health Foundation
Produce Marketing Association
Quality Insights of Delaware
University of Delaware Cooperative Extension
Veteran's Administration Medical and Regional Office
Exhibit area at the HENOD Conference. |
