In September, several Mt. Bakers neighbors will walk 60 miles in three days to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure for breast cancer.
Last year, the group known as Seattle Pink walked from Shoreline to Everett, Everett to Mukilteo and back to the Space Needle in downtown Seattle in its first 3 Day Walk for the Cure to end breast cancer.
This year they’ve more than doubled their team and are looking forward to the challenge.
“It was the journey of a lifetime,” said Seattle Pink team captain Annabelle Ridge, “We can’t wait to do it again!”
In order to participate, every Seattle Pink team member must raise $2,300 to walk. Go here to learn more and to make a donation.
Photo/Paul Ridge
All hands on deck as members of the non-profit Rainier Health & Fitness (RHF) gym plan their third annual fundraiser, the “Move-A-Thon”, scheduled for Sat. Aug. 21, 7 am to 7 pm, when members, elected officials and community leaders will form teams and exercise in one-hour shifts for this 12-hour event, raising funds for gym scholarships.
Move-A-Thon teams will exercise for one hour moving between three high energy stations: dance, boot camp and cardio.
Thirty percent of Rainier Health & Fitness’ members receive low-cost access to personal trainers, group classes and childcare through its scholarship program.
Faduma, an immigrant from Somalia, was advised to begin exercising to reduce her high cholesterol.
“I love it because my friends are here and the trainers tell me how to exercise.”
Members are learning that a small change in lifestyle has the power to alter their physical and mental state. Fifty-nine year old Carol Johnson (not her real name) a participant in this year’s Move-A-Thon, first began exercising regularly two years ago at RHF. She had constant pain in her joints, high stress and, was constantly tired. Today, Mrs. Johnson is a different person. Regular exercise has helped to diminish the aches and pains in her body. She comes to the gym four-to-five times a week with a smile on her face and more energy than she has had in years.
The 2010 Move-A-Thon is expected to generate up to 50 one-year fitness scholarships, making it possible for South Seattle residents, regardless of income, to get active.
Register online at www.rainierhealth.com for just $17.
Rainier Health & Fitness – located at 7722 Rainier Ave. S. in Othello – was voted Best Gym two years running in the Best of SE Seattle Reader’s Choice Poll. Photo/Myra Myra
Tagged as:
othello
Interested in helping to connect kids with where their food comes from? Come out and share your ideas for our new community learning garden in Rainier Beach!
On Tues., April 20, the Steering Committee of the Rainier Beach Learning Garden will host the second of three meetings to create a design for the expanded garden. The meeting will take place at South Lake High School from 6-8 pm. Dinner and childcare will be provided.
Invite your neighbors and friends and be a part of creating the neighborhood you want to see! Join us to compare several designs and share ideas for making the garden an inviting and educational space for friends and neighbors of all ages.
The Rainier Beach Learning Garden is a partnership between Seattle Tilth, Seattle Parks, South Shore PTSA, South Shore PreK-8, the Rainier Beach Community Center, the New School Foundation, and Kids Co.
Located behind South Shore School next to the tennis courts, the garden gives kids and adults a place to grow their own food and learn about healthy eating and environmental stewardship.
Last August a local landscape firm helped the partner groups and 50 volunteers build six raised beds to start the garden. Since then, Seattle Tilth has been teaching kids and adults to love bugs, grow food, and explore the natural world through hands-on science.
The organization recently received a matching grant from the Department of Neighborhoods to expand the garden, teach the latest techniques in urban gardening and help more people grow their own food. For more information, contact Sharon Lerman at sharonlerman@seattletilth.org.
Photo/do communications
Tagged as:
rainier beach
Seattle Tilth has announces its latest schedule of classes and there’s all sorts of gardening fun to be had in Mount Baker and Rainier Beach. Advance registration and payment is required. More info.
4/13: Chickens in your Backyard – Your chickens will love you for the chance to free-range in your garden! Learn how your garden can also benefit. This lecture class includes how to let your chickens weed and control pests, how to keep chickens out of your garden, what plants are toxic to chickens, and how to manage and use chicken manure in your garden. 6:30-8 p.m. at Bradner Gardens Park (1733 Bradner Place S.). $18 for Seattle Tilth members, $25 non-members.
4/15: Container Veggie Gardening – Attention apartment and condo dwellers! Just because you don’t have a patch of ground doesn’t mean you can’t grow fresh, organic vegetables and herbs. Come learn how to begin and maintain an edible container garden. Whether you’re growing on your balcony or windowsill, this class will help you get started. 6-7:30 p.m. at Bradner Gardens Park (1733 Bradner Place S.). $18 for Seattle Tilth members, $25 non-members.
4/25: Season Extension – Cold frames, Cloches, Mulch and More – Use of season extension techniques is one of the best tools gardeners can use to extend their growing season and harvest year round. With the use of cloches, cold frames, row cover and other techniques gardeners can warm the soil and air allowing plants to grow and thrive earlier than they would unprotected. This class is perfect for beginning gardeners who want to learn techniques for planting earlier in the spring, later in the fall, and growing better heat crops in the summer. Learn what you can plant now to get a jump on the season! 10 a.m.-noon at Bradner Gardens Park (1733 Bradner Place S.). $25 for Seattle Tilth members, $35 non-members.
4/25: Getting the Most from Small Spaces – Urban vegetable gardeners often have limited space for their gardens. This shouldn’t prevent you from growing everything you want and feeding your family! This clinic will focus on how to prepare the soil by double digging, bed layout, plant spacing, and planting. Learn to use your space effectively – we’ll show you how! 1-3 p.m. at Bradner Gardens Park (1733 Bradner Place S.). $25 for Seattle Tilth members, $35 non-members.
5/5: Grow Good Food! This is a perfect time to start growing healthy food for you and your family! Join teachers from Seattle Tilth and your neighborhood to learn how to grow organic veggies and herbs in this 4 week class. You will learn what you can plant now, how to get started by preparing your soil and how to plant. We will use garden space at the community center to show you how to install a garden from start to finish. If you don’t have a yard, we will talk about city programs that can connect you with free or low-cost garden space near you. Imagine serving fresh, home-grown veggies on your table later this spring! 6 – 7 p.m. at Rainier Beach Community Center (8825 Rainier Ave. S.). $35.
Founded in 1978, Seattle Tilth is a nationally recognized non-profit educational organization dedicated to cultivating a sustainable community, one garden at a time. Seattle Tilth inspires and educates people to garden organically, conserve natural resources and support local food systems in order to cultivate a healthy urban environment and community. Photo/do communications
Tagged as:
mt. baker,
rainier beach
Bicycle Sundays will start on the first Sunday in May and continue nearly every Sunday through the end of September. For 19 weekend days this spring and summer, the City will devote a stretch of Lake Washington Boulevard exclusively to bicycles.
Cyclists can ride along the car-free shores of Lake Washington from Mt. Baker Beach south to Seward Park from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the following days:
- May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
- June 6, 13, 27
- July 5 (a Monday), 11, 18, 25
- August 1, 22, 29
- September 5, 12, 19, 26
Bicycle Sundays are brought to you by Seattle Parks and Recreation and Cascade Bicycle Club, with the support of the Seattle Police Department. Photo/do communications
Tagged as:
Lake Washington Boulevard,
Seward Park
From Cascade Bicycle Club:
Do you live, work, or commute in Southeast Seattle? Do you have ideas on how this area could be improved for bicycling? If so, please take a few minutes to fill out this survey.
Cascade recently received a grant from the Alliance for Biking and Walking to conduct research and develop programming to address the barriers to bicycling in Southeast Seattle. Your input through this survey will be valuable to help identify, prioritize and address bicycle improvements.
If you have any questions, or would like to provide additional information that is not covered in the survey, please e-mail Tessa Greegor (tessa.greegor@cascadebicycleclub.org)
Photo/do communications, inc.
By Diana Vergis Vinh, RN/Public Health Seattle and King County, Facilitator – Healthy and Active Rainier Valley Coalition
We know that the Rainier Valley is the best place to live. Let’s work together to make it the healthiest as well. Right now valley residents are more likely than people living in other parts of Seattle to have heart disease, diabetes and cancer. We also are less likely to get enough exercise and more likely to be overweight.
Since 2004, “The Healthy and Active Rainier Valley Coalition” has been moving to improve health in the valley.
Now it’s your turn. What would you like to see done in 2010? Go here to complete a short on-line survey.
Meetings are every other month on third Wednesdays and are open to all.
Thanks for your help and here’s to a healthy and happy new year!
Working out with the Feet First chicken at a local diabetes prevention fair. Photo/Diana Vergis Vinh
See our Big Dates Page – the only comprehensive calendar of events in all of southeast Seattle – for more information on these and other south-end gatherings, events, meetings, groups, etc. In the meantime, here’s a sampling of what’s happening around the community tonight…
Public Meeting on Health Reform: The 37th legislative delegation will host a public meeting on health reform with Sen. Adam Kline; Rep. Eric Pettigrew; Sen. Karen Keiser, chair of the Senate Health & Long-Term Care Committee; and Rep. Eileen Cody, chair of the House Health Care & Wellness Committee. 6-8 pm at Asian Counseling & Referral Services (3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S.). Sen. Keiser and Rep. Cody will address questions about health care issues and discuss how federal health reform efforts could impact Washington residents. Several of our neighbors will also contribute to the discussion, including Dr. Grace Wang, the Medical Director for International Community Health Services. There will be ample question & answer period.
Youth Violence Forum: Seattle Channel, CityClub and Town Hall will hold a forum on youth violence from 6 to 8:30 pm at Town Hall (1119 8th Ave.). Seattle Channel’s public affairs host C.R. Douglas, will lead a lively panel discussion that includes youth who know violence first-hand on the streets, Councilmember and longtime youth mentor Bruce Harrell, Seattle Youth Violence Prevention Initiative (SYVPI) Director Mariko Lockhart, Police Assistant Chief Jim Pugel, Urban League SYVPI Program Coordinator Jamila Taylor, a member of the Seattle Police Department gang unit and a former gang member. The panel will be asked questions and discuss the city’s initiative aimed at youth violence, including whether the approach is working, how people can get involved and what community organizations and private businesses can do to help. The forum will include an Interactive Polling System to directly receive feedback from the audience. Additionally, viewers tuning into Seattle Channel 21 can participate in the forum online during the broadcast.
South Rainier Valley Safety Partnership: Meet new South Precinct Captain Emerick from 6 to 7:30 pm at the Atlantic Street Rainier Beach Family Center located inside the Rainier Beach Community Center (8825 Rainier Ave. S.). There will be signs to direct you to the room. Snack and light refreshments will be provided.
Design Review Meeting for Urban Impact’s Impact Family Village: Impact Family Village is 63 affordable homes for working families and will be located at 7700 Rainier Ave. S. The Design Review meeting starts at 6:30 pm at the Filipino Community Center (MLK and Juneau).
Tagged as:
MLK Jr Way,
rain-king,
rainier beach
Northwest Asian Weekly:
On Sept. 23, Neighborcare Health CEO Mark Secord, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, healthcare workers, and Neighborcare Health patient Phyllis Beaumonte broke ground on a new medical and dental clinic.
The new Rainier Beach Medical and Dental Clinic combined Neighborcare Health’s existing Rainier Beach Medical Clinic and the Southeast Dental Clinic, preserving and increasing access to medical and dental care for more than 14,000 under-served residents of southeast Seattle. The facility will open in 2010.
The $19 million project will create 75 full-time-equivalent construction jobs and 15 new full-time clinic positions, preserving 70 clinic jobs. The clinic will also provide mental health, social work, and health outreach services. More.
Neighborcare Health – the largest provider of primary medical and dental care for low-income people in the city – has been serving Seattle for more than 40 years. Photo/do communications, inc.
Tagged as:
rainier beach
From Seattle Channel:
This week on CityStream, Kim Holcomb reports on how Public Health — Seattle & King County is putting a new spin on Smokey Robinson’s advice to shop around.
“Shop Arounds” are tours of grocery stores led by peer educators trained in basic nutrition and label reading. These free interactive tours teach people how to make healthier choices in the supermarket aisles.
CityStream went on a “Shop Around” in a Rainier Valley Safeway with Public Health’s Diana Vergis Vinh, a registered nurse, and several seniors. Vinh says, “It’s not a full nutrition course. It’s really just a sort of down-and-dirty to get people in the habit of looking at the serving sizes and looking at the label and trying to make some more informed choices.”
At any given time, there are around 80,000 items on this Safeway’s shelves–that’s a lot of choices. Vinh gives shopping tips as the tour proceeds:
- Eat different colored fruits and vegetables at each meal. This helps insure that you’ll get lots of vitamins.
- Your portion of meat should be about the size of a deck of cards; that will help keep your intake of saturated fats to a reasonable level.
- Most flavored yogurt contains so much sugar that it should be treated as a dessert.
- Sugary cereals are placed at eye level so they can be reached by children; the healthier ones are up high or down low.
Get Cooking at Your Local Community Kitchen:
What to do with all those healthy groceries? Try attending one of your local community kitchen:
A community kitchen is a group of people who regularly meet to cook tasty and healthy meals. Everyone participates in the preparation and all that’s needed is an interest in food. Some kitchens cook and share meal at the site; others cook meals to freeze for later. Community kitchens are a great way to connect with your neighbors and have a supply of home cooked meals ready for your family in minutes.
There are three community kitchens currently located in the Rainier Valley: Neighborhood House in Rainier Vista, Rainier Community Center in Columbia City and Southeast Seattle Senior Center in Brighton.
“Rainier is a great kitchen and it’s lots of fun,” said Nurse Diana.
Learn more at this new community kitchen web site that will let you know how to start up a new kitchen, where existing kitchens are and what recipes work well at these events.
Photo Courtesy of Community Kitchens
Related:
Tagged as:
Brighton,
columbia city,
Rainier Vista
By Sue Reed
With all the media focus on the structure of healthcare in this country, personal responsibility has been absent from the discussion. The medical system is an important part of our care but we can’t deny the impact of the choices we make. We often look outside ourselves for solutions without feeling empowered to take care of ourselves.
Your body is communicating with you all the time. Do you have any ideas what it is saying? Do you slow down long enough to hear the message of tension, strain, stress, and/or overload? What about taking a moment to notice how good your body feels and to appreciate the joy of health?
Healthcare is experiential. We need to be actively involved in our healthcare for it to work. It has been shown that healthcare costs go down if we get early treatment. When we are aware of our bodies’ messages we know when to call for professional help and/or do something for ourselves. But if it is not a medical emergency how do we know what our body needs?
There are many ways to connect with your body. Simply slowing down and breathing more deeply is a great start. Use things you already do as triggers to check in with yourself. For example, when you are stopped at a red light, stop your self as well. Take a deep breath and stop your thoughts. Even that few seconds can make a big difference in your health.
Expand on this by drinking a lot of water throughout your day. This makes you have to get up and go to the bathroom. It amazes me how we sit at our desks or work on our feet for hours ignoring the tension in our back or pain in our feet, but the second our bladder sends the slightest message we react.
Give the body’s subtle messages more attention and it may reduce the need for more costly intervention. Financial wizards say pay your self first. I say pay yourself with attention first and then do what your body needs.
If you don’t know what your body needs, take a few breaths and listen. At first you may not hear anything. Don’t get discouraged – you have probably been ignoring yourself for years; remember it is experiential and it takes practice. If you need to reach out for help, find a meditation class, a yoga class, a Qigong class, a counselor or therapist.
The point is, you can do something today to reform your own healthcare.
Sue Reed has been a Licensed Healthcare Provider for more than 14 years. She is a Certified Qigong Instructor with a class starting this October in Columbia City, and a Licensed Massage practitioner. Visit her website for more information.
Tagged as:
Sue Reed
