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Campaign Wrap Up: Thank you to our year-end donors! You’ve helped us raise $133,997.50, exceeding our 2011 Annual Fund Campaign Goal of $125,000!

Anonymous
Theodore G. Baldwin Foundation
Dr. & Mrs. Steve Bennett, Platte Valley
Foot Clinic
Dr. Larry & Susan Bragg
Nikki & Scott Gausman
Collene Henninger
Steve Henninger
Dr. Shane & Sharon Jensen, Eagle Dental Assoc.
Doug & Helen Kramer
Lesley LaFile
Gilbert & Lavonne Loseke
Terri, Frank, Foster & Dalton Meier
Alan & Germaine Oldfather
Region 3 Behavioral Health Services
Laurie Riessland, Remax Executives
Don & Janece Ripp, Don Ripp Construction
Ellen Schroeder
Snyder & Hilliard, P.C., L.L.O.
Paul & Linda Younes

Every other month at Platte Valley State Bank staff members nominate  a local non-profit and vote to select one. Then on the last day of those months, employees get to wear jeans for a five dollar donation to the selected non-profit. Thank you to the employees of Platte Valley State Bank for voting for Community Partners and raising $205! BCCP truly appreciates the support of Platte Valley State Bank, and of all the local supporters.

Positive Pressure was joined by Chuck Matson on Thursday, January 19, 2012 at the Buffalo County Community Partners offices. A 27-year veteran of the Omaha Police Department, Matson formed Recognizing Impairing Drugs (RID) in 1998, a training on the danger of addictive drugs.
For his session at Community Partners, Matson focused on the increasing rate of abuse of prescription drugs and the dangers they present for communities and youth.
“Chuck shared an important message about the impact of drugs and alcohol on the developing brain and throughout adulthood,” said Jessica Carter, Positive Pressure Coalition Coordinator. “I look forwrad to continuing conversations with law enforcement, schools and community members about emerging prescription drug abuse trends. Chuck is very obviously an expert in his field, and we are fortunate to have had him working in Kearney.”
Matson also presented for staff and parents at Kearney High school, Kearney Catholic High school, students in Pleasanton and law enforcement. If you would like Matson to present for your business or school, contact Jessica Carter at 308-865-2283 or email positivepressure@bcchp.org

High Impact Prevention Services is the next Strategic Direction that Community Partners would like to highlight for their 2020 Vision. What is the goal of this strategy and what is Community Partners doing to help further it?
The goal of the High Impact Prevention Services strategy is to improve the health and quality of life in Buffalo County through prevention, leveraging and collaboration, planning, and programming. To aid communities in the coordination and integration of resources, and use of evidence-based practices to improve health and well-being.
The Positive Pressure coalition, a work group that exists to eliminate alcohol sales to minors and intoxicated patrons, is a huge part of this strategy. Recently, Positive Pressure brought in nationally recognized speaker Chuck Matson to speak on the growing prevalence of prescription drug abuse. For more information please contact Jessica Carter, 308-865-2283 or positivepressure@bcchp.org
There is also the Community Coalition to Improve Alzheimer’s/Dementia Health, whose mission is to increase the communities knowledge of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. This will be achieved by building community partnerships, increasing education and heightening awareness. This coalition is still in its developing stages so now is the time to share your key concerns and issues about Alzheimer’s and Dementia. For more information please contact Alexandra Dillon, 308-440-7773.

The Positive Pressure Coalition administrative assistant, Christina Rice, is facilitating a new program in Buffalo County: PhotoVoice. Along with Community Partners intern, Jalin Ballou, Rice will facilitate a program designed to empower youth to represent and benefit their community with photos that they take. Through photography and writing, participants find confidence in their voices and are encouraged to communicate about their challenges, concerns, ideas, hopes and fears. This is an exciting program that will provide ten youth from Buffalo County with an opportunity to express themselves through photography.

Community Partners is excited to announce a new partnership with Wellness Works of Kearney. Together, the two organizations will be engaging in a collaborative effort to provide the community with a mass media campaign to improve overall health in Buffalo County communities called “Join the Movement.” There will be four segments to the campaign, each promoted throughout the year, encouraging people to eat and drink healtheir, to live active lifestyles and to unplug from technology on a regular basis. Stay tuned for more information!

In our last post we talked about how the “soda tax” is getting so much attention lately and some of the research that’s been done about the benefits of a “soda tax.”

Our own state of Nebraska is looking at something similar, though people are insisting that it’s not a tax. There has been a legislative bill introduced (LB753), that would change the current status of soda and energy drinks. Currently, in Nebraska, soda and energy drinks are defined as food and are therefore tax exempt, but LB753 wants to change that, removing their tax-exempt status. Milk, 100% juice and plain water would still be considered food and still be tax-exempt. This pdf goes over some of the benefits of removing the tax exemption including:

-”The funds raised by removing this tax exemption would be directed toward evidence-based programs such as the school lunch program, coordinated school health, increased physical activity and education, and increased health related training opportunities for early child care providers.”

-”34 of 50 states have already removed this tax-exemption”

What do YOU think? Is removing the tax exemption status the same as adding a tax or not? Is this something Nebraskans should support?

According to an article from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), “Americans drink 13.8 billion gallons of soda, fruit punch, sweet tea, sports drinks and other sweetened beverages” every year. Numbers like that are what are impacting the soaring obesity and diabetes rates in the United States.

Now there’s talk of taxing sugary drinks, a penny-per-ounce.

Scientists at UCFS, San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) and Columbia University have studied the effects of a implementing this proposed, nation-wide tax.

The article says they claim that placing the penny-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages would “prevent nearly 100,000 cases of heart disease, 8,000 strokes and 26,000 deaths over the next decade. The tax would also bring in $13 billion a year in direct tax revenue.

Those are pretty staggering numbers.

In 2009 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that reducing the intake of the sugary beverages was one of it’s main obesity prevention strategies.

What do you think? Is it worth adding additional taxes?