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Show B4 Wednesday, April 30, 2008 Vernal Express Ixth graders complete DAEi i i . r 1 1 i r. ! t v li ; i 3 v Of Second Semester DARE essay winners join Officer Holly Dick of Vernal Police Department and sixth grade health teacher Paulette Goodwin. Student are Tyler Mansfield, Anthony Prion, Brianna Civish, Justin Felkins, Michael Unck, Tryston Vincent. Second semester students finished up their DARE program on April 9. They were treated to snacks and received their DARE T-shirts and graduation certificates. DARE is supported by a Wal-Mart matching grant and the generosity of other area businesses. Each DARE essay winner received a $50 Wal-Mart gift card. Sixth wade students at Vernal Middle School conducted their annual DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Re-sistance Education) graduation ceremony on April 11. Graduat-" ing students enjoyed an assembly conducted by Officer Holly Dick of the Vernal City Police Department, Depart-ment, where Officer Cox and K-9 Jessie demonstrated how she locates illegal drugs. Students were awed by the way Jessie responds to Cox's commands and unconditional obedience., A guest speaker, Pam Webster, also warned the students of under age drinking, including an exercise to help students stu-dents understand that everyone is exposed to alcohol in one way or another in their life. After the assembly students ate pizza and drank 7-Up donated by Pepsi. Officer Holly began her 10-week DARE program in October Octo-ber and taught the same program again second semester to a new group of sixth graders. Health teacher Paulette Goodwin and her students look forward to Wednesdays when Officer Holly would come to share her knowledge with them. To graduate from the program students are required to complete a 33-page DARE workbook and write an essay on what they learned from the program in their health class. Wal-Mart, and fj.uju iiij., j1" .. -i mm jr-rm 1 imm.. J "" "' wnrnn I n 1 i 1 1 n r - (.. ...... I I), . . , f ... , -" j Jessie, the K-9 drug dog works with Officer Cox of Vernal City Police Department. a matching grant, donated 12 $50 gift cards for each essay winner - one for each of Goodwin's sixth grade health classes. Graduating students received a DARE T-shirt, certificate and a DARE prize for wearing their shirt the day of graduation. Because Be-cause of generous donations by local businesses, DARE is able to pay for a water field day on May 22, DARE prize drawing throughout the school year and students attend a movie at Tri-Cinema Tri-Cinema in December. Now that DARE has concluded, con-cluded, Goodwin continues to encourage all students and staff to wear their DARE shirts for prizes on Wednesdays. Vernal Middle School has participated in the DARE program for several years now and each year gets better according to Goodwin. Uintah Basin 1NERGY SYMPOSIUM May 22-23 Western Park 300 E 200 S 4k Golf Tournament 4 Man Scramble May 23 For registration, booths or sponsorship information, contact Vernal Area Chamber of Commerce at 789-1352 or stop in at 134 West Main. Your health is focus of Brown Bag Lecture Series Getting people well and keeping keep-ing them well is the focus of a "Brown Bag Lecture Series" that will be held free of charge beginning in May. The monthly lectures will be held over the noon hour and will feature health-related topics and discussion led by the owners of Cedar Bear Naturales. Jhoane and Caarl Robinson's experience and research in the realm of liquid herbs will be the basis for the series. "Our approach is a complimentary compli-mentary approach to health care, dealing not with illness and disease, but with building and balancing health, supporting support-ing the structure and functions in the body with whole nutrition supplementation," said Jhoane Robinson. "More people are becoming becom-ing aware all the time that big pharmaceutical drugs, while they have their place, are being overused. Sometimes it just takes a bit of information to turn things around. It's time to get together and talk." Since everyone has such a hectic schedule these days and everyone needs to have lunch wherever they work, the lectures will be held at lunchtime. The first Brown Bag Lecture is slated for noon on May 7. The topic is "How to Cure the Common Com-mon Cold." A new topic will be announced monthly. The lectures will be held the second Wednesday Wednes-day of each month. "We'll field subjects from A through Z," Robinson said. The lecture will run for an hour. June 11 will be "Weight Loss - An Approach That Works!;" and July 9 will be "Pain Relief Without Medication." "There is no charge for these lectures. We've been given so much in our lives, it 's a way for us to give back," Robinson said. The Brown Bag Lunch Lectures Lec-tures on Health will be held at the Crossroads Center in Roosevelt. Bring your lunch. Drinks will be provided. The Crossroads Center is a senior center and requests that mothers please not bring small children. "Our Brown Bag Lunch Lectures Lec-tures are a way to begin helping people get that information they are so hungry for, " Robinson said. "We are really looking forward to meeting with everyone and help-ingthembecomebetter help-ingthembecomebetter informed and protect their health." Health officials want changes to state's swimming pool law By Lacey McMurry Uintah Basin News Service State health officials are proposing new rules for public swimming pools after a massive outbreak of cryptosporidium-induced cryptosporidium-induced illnesses in Utah last summer. Utah Down Syndrome Foundation I 7'w Hvi"n T ( i (jJ, .iA A non-profit organization established in 1977, the UTAH DOWN SYNDROME FOUNDATION provides outreach, training, counseling, ' support, education, information, and activities for individuals with Down syndrome, their parents and families, and the community. With 14 chapters throughout the state, this volunteer organization has grown to become Utah's largest support provider for the Down syndrome community. The UDSF strives to bring families together to share experiences, challenges, goals, and dreams and to educate parents and society in understanding and appreciating the needs of individuals with Down syndrome. As parents gain knowledge, they are empowered to become better advocates for their children, thus providing them with increased opportunities to reach their highest potential. Community Services the UDSF Provides Free Bimonthly Newsletter Advocate, the bimonthly newsletter of the UDSF, is published as a service to Utah families of people who have Down syndrome. Free Newborn Packet The Newborn Booklet is a collection of articles, resources, and other information for people that have been blessed to have a child with Down syndrome. Utah Natural Wonder's Calendar Since 1977, the UDSF has produced Utah's Natural Wonders, annual calendar. Each month of the full-color calendar features beautiful portraits of individuals with Ds. Family Links Conference The UDSF is a sponsor of the Family Links Conference held three times a year for families with individuals of all disabilities. CALL OR EMAIL TODAY TO GET ON OUR MAILING LIST 877-499-UDSF 801-446-1994 WWW.UDSF.ORG ftEMFMBER - A 3ABY fTRST We are licre to- j upportyou Cryptosporidium, or crypto as it is more commonly known, is a human feces-borne parasite that causes stomach cramps, severe diarrhea and vomiting and can be contracted by swallowing contaminated con-taminated water in recreational pools. Last year's state crypto outbreak caused an estimated 1,900 illnesses - the largest recreational water-associated outbreak ever reported in the United States. In a normal year, Utah typically sees a total of 30 crypto cases. Garth Miner, environmental scientist for the Utah Department Depart-ment of Health, said scientists still aren't sure why the number of cases ballooned last year. "I've heard alot of hypotheses, but no one can come to any one conclusion," he said. "Itwouldbe nice if we had been able to pinpoint pin-point a specific cause so we could stop any future outbreaks." In an effort to prevent last year's worst-case-scenario from reoccurring, state officials have proposed that the following changes be made to the state swimming pool law in time for the 2008 season: swimmers should not swim if they have diarrhea or have had diarrhea in the last two weeks; pool operators should be given methods to respond to fecal accidents ac-cidents at their facilities; and children under 3 orindividuals without bowel control should be required to wear a swim diaper and waterproof swim pants. Miner said that although infants in-fants and toddlers are currently not required by state law to wear swim diapers, many local public pool managers have chosen to voluntarily require that mandate be followed. "There's never been anything in the state rules about swim diapers," he said. "In fact, in researching all the state laws nationwide, I only found six that even mentioned diapers." Straightforward as the new proposed rules may be, Miner said officials believe they can III JIIHLUUIIll.imIH,III.IUIJI.IIi.l.l.ll. J. J ll J" II I I I I IIIJILIJIIUIII.IIIII. .1 . I lll.lllllll II. Quality care with a personal touch. Ashley Regional Medical Center will be offering: k mm m H your out-of-pocket expenses if you schedule a Bone Density Test during the month of May. Call 789-3342, Ext. 222 to schedule your test, or ask your family doctor today! Ashley Regional MEDICAL CENTER ,.'.vi.-.;, ,,.J',;i'.y.i',-fei. r,--J-,ja-tiLMm2mab aL'iy.-.'r, prevent an outbreak of last year 's magnitude from reoccurring, so long as pool patrons do their part to keep pools clean. Swimmers need to exercise common sense about hygiene and things like changing a child's diaper in the locker room rather than by the side of the pool, officials said. Darrin Brown, director of Jehvironmental health for Tri- County Health Department, said much of the responsibility of enforcing the newly-proposed swimming laws will lie with the public. "Because of the type of problem prob-lem crypto is, there are some things we can't control," Brown said. "People have to be honest as to whether they've been sick in the past couple of weeks because we would have no way of knowing that." Brown said he thinks swimmers' swim-mers' willingness to follow laws that are largely unenforceable will come as a result of them being informed about the nature and dangers of crypto. To that end, Miner said state public health officials are planning plan-ning an education campaign that will gear up just before the swimming swim-ming season begins. Additionally, all public pool managers across the state were invited to attend a meeting last week detailing ways to help prevent crypto. In spite of the scope of the crypto outbreak last summer, Brown said the parasite never became a problem locally. "There wasn't anyone who got crypto from our area," he said. "There were a couple of cases we investigated, but we determined those people had been exposed to it somewhere else. They were either ei-ther visiting from out of the area or had been swimming while on vacation." Although health officials regularly check water samples to verify swimming pool water is sanitary, crypto parasites are microscopic and difficult to identify. iden-tify. "There's no easy test to see if there is crypto in the water," Brown said. "It's all regulated by people's trips to the doctor. If a physician tells us that he has some cases of people with crypto symptoms who have been coming to the pool a lot, that's how we know we might have a problem." At the height of Utah's crypto outbreak last summer, health officials of-ficials banned children under 5 and anyone wearing diapers from public swimming pools. Both Duchesne and Uintah counties managed to escape those restrictions restric-tions because there hadn't been any indication of a problem in the area. Have a Comment? Public comment on the proposed changes to the state swimming pool law will be accepted until May 15. Comments can be sent to rmarsdenfii'utah.gov. X |