List of Healthy Communities (and partners) Nov-Dec 2014 News and Events

We hope you can attend the December Healthy Communities Coalition meeting. There will be a holiday-themed potluck breakfast, fascinating guest speakers and discussion of exciting developments in regional food, health and art hubs. The December meeting will be in Silver Springs at the Community Center on Thurs Dec. 11th at 9am.

Below are a few “good news” announcements from Yerington, Virginia City, Silver City, Fernley, Dayton, Silver Springs, Smith Valley, and Stagecoach:

Healthy Communities Coalition’s Stand Tall youth team in Dayton is holding a “Coat, Can and Food Drive” to benefit Dayton residents on Friday, Nov 21st from 3:30pm-8:00pm at Smith’s Grocery on Hwy 50 in Dayton.

Community Thanksgiving dinner in Silver Springs. The dinner will be held at the Silver Stage High School, on Sat. Nov. 22nd from 4pm-7pm with many groups pitching in to make it possible. The purpose is simply community togetherness and good will. Silver Stage Co-Op, part of Healthy Communities Coalition, is donating enough turkeys for at least 300 to 400 families. The local food pantry is pitching in with stuffing and gravy, and the local Girl Scouts are bringing a dozen pumpkin pies. Healthy Communities’ staff person Tammy Sutton has worked with the Coalition’s Stand Tall youth team, plus SSHS’s “S” Club (junior Soroptimists), and the high school to help organize the event. The youth clubs, “S” Club and Stand Tall, are creating a “Thanksgiving Tree” to be displayed during the event. People will be invited to write what they’re thankful for on paper leaves and attach those to the display. Please call Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey’s certified Community Health Advocate and SSHS Stand Tall leader, Tammy Sutton, at (775) 301-8543 if you would like more details

Lyon County Sheriff’s Department officers are frequent volunteers with the Dayton Food Pantry projects, including the Nov. 15th “Stuff a Cop Car with Food for the Pantry” event at Smith’s in Dayton. Special thanks to the Sheriff’s Dept, and to Julie Ake, Olga Nanez and others who helped organize the food drive at the grocery store. Dozens of volunteers at the Pantry put in hundreds of hours each month to keep the Pantry running smoothly. In October, volunteers contributed 542 hours of hard work. The Dayton Food Pantry will have special hours and events during the Thanksgiving season.Thanksgiving turkeys or whole chickens were distributed by the Pantry on November 15th. The Pantry, located at 4 Enterprise Way, will be open November 17th through November 21st for all who were not able to attend the distribution on November 15th. The Dayton Pantry will be closed November 24th through November 28th so that volunteers can enjoy the holiday with their families. For more information about the Pantry, please call 246-7834

HCC sponsors a series of FREE cooking classes for the community. The next class is on Monday, November 16that The Dayton Community Center at 170 Pike Street. Participants will learn how to prepare lima bean soup. Cooking begins at 5:30pm, and participants will enjoy a meal together at 6:15pm. The class is open to anyone who would like to learn to cook nutritious meals using affordable and local ingredients that result in tasty dishes. For more details about the classes, contact Rebekah May at 775-342-7675.

HCC’s Silver Stage Food Pantry will be distributing Thanksgiving turkeys and whole chickens on Monday, Nov 17th through Friday, Nov 21 from 10am until 4pm. For more information, please call 577-9161. For more details, see http://healthycomm.org/2014/11/09/silver-stage-food-pantry-holds-special-hours-and-events-during-november-2014/Thanksgiving turkeys or whole chickens will be distributed by HCC’s Dayton Food Pantry on Saturday Nov 15th at Sutro Elementary School, 190 Dayton Village Parkway in Dayton from noon to 3pm.  The Pantry, located at 4 Enterprise Way, will be open Nov 17th through Nov 21st for all who are not able to attend the distribution on Saturday November 15th. The  Pantry will be closed Nov 24th through Nov28th so that volunteers can enjoy the holiday with their families. For more info, see http://healthycomm.org/2014/11/09/special-november-hours-and-events-at-hccs-dayton-food-pantry/Message from National Alliance on Mental Illness (Western Nevada) secretary Sarah Adler: “Greetings Members of NAMI Western Nevada and friends!As you know, many from the western Nevada region have joined together to form a chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and we are excited to invite you to our Annual Meeting and Holiday Celebration.It will be held Sunday, December 7, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. in the Ormsby Room of the Carson City Sheriff’s Office. We welcome all who are interested in supporting individuals with mental illness and their families. Feel free to forward this to your friends and encourage them to attend as well. Your RSVP to  sarahmadler@aol.com will assure an adequate supply of holiday treats!” Sarah Adler is also director of USDA Rural Development in Nevada, and a board member with HCC.
HCC’s Silver Stage Food Pantry and Co-Op are collecting coats and warm winter clothing. Although the groups collected warm outerwear for several weeks, there was still a big need in the community for children’s coats in mid-November. So Co-Op treasurer Anita Clark checked every thrift shop from Silver Springs to Carson and collected dozens more very nice ones for the local Boys and Girls Club coat swap. Way to go, Anita!

Silver Stage Food Pantry will begin taking names of children for their Angel Tree the first week of December. They’ll be collecting new or gently used toys and gifts for children 0-17 years of age. For more information, please call (775) 577-9161.

Much gratitude to Community Chest Inc for their contributions to employment assistance in the region:  CCI staff visits the Silver Stage Food Pantry and offers connections to job training and connections to job opportunities, and now Community Chest staff will be onsite at the Dayton Food Pantry at 4 Enterprise Way, Mon-Thurs from 9am-5pm to help connect people with job openings and job skills training programs through their Comstock AdultWorks program! Depending on the type of job training, there is as much as $2,500 per worker. Call Kelly at 775- 720-0007 or stop in and see her in person for help with the following: 1)Assistance with job searches 2)Resume development 3)Assistance with Food Stamp (SNAP) applications and Medicaid applications 4)connections to training to improve job skills

Great news: St. Mary’s Art Center in Storey County, and Silver Stage Elementary’s GREEN Team in Lyon County, were named by the NNDA for best innovation and best green practices of the year in a 5 county region!The Governor’s Conference on Agriculture in November includes many speakers you may know, such as Healthy Communities’ director Christy McGill; Smith Valley students and teacher Andy Miller; USDA Rural Development Nevada Director Sarah Adler (also an HCC board member); Nevada Dept of Agriculture director Jim Barbee, etc. Find out more at http://agri.nv.gov/governorsconference/HCC’s Silver Stage Co-Op had a very successful first inaugural “Punkin’ Chunkin” event at the Lyon County Fly-In. The event served as a fun STEM event for students, and the Co-Op was praised in the local newspapers for their considerable contributions to the event:  From Mason Valley News: “Fly-in committee chairman Ron Bell Bell said the organizers from the Silver Stage Co-Op Association spent hundreds of dollars, maybe approaching $1,000, on buying the many pumpkins for the Punkin Chunkin, including having to get many from California to fill the need. He said the work of the co-op in helping organize the event has been “absolutely amazing.” “Kudos Lavurne of HCC for organizing a successful Career & College Fair at Dayton High – Principal Tim Logan said he was pleased with the wide range of career, technical and college opportunities students were exposed to in the event.Check with HCC’s certified Community Health Advocates if you’d like to know more about free healthy cooking classes, and upcoming classes on diabetes and chronic pain self management, tobacco cessation, mental health first aid, etc.Shout out to HCC’s Stand Tall youth leadership and wellness teams on their many events to promote sobriety, healthy living and community involvement, including Red Ribbon Week throughout Lyon County high schools. Fernley High School’s Stand Tall will host their annual 5K Walk/Run (the Turkey Trot) on Nov. 23rd at 8:30am. Contact regional Stand Tall coordinator Anji at HCC for info on any of HCC’s teams in Yerington, Silver Springs, Dayton, and Fernley.Congratulations to the Silver City Arts group, which hosted an official Nevada 150 event on Oct 31st, a fine arts exhibit that attracted over 100 people from Northern Nevada. HCC helped out a bit with advertising and insurance needs.Healthy Communities Coalition’s director Christy McGill is quoted extensively on page 10 and 11 in the new edition of Remote Area Medical’s magazine. This spring, RAM served not only Nevadans from the cities of Reno and Vegas, but also rural residents who came by the van loads from communities like Minden, Silver Springs, Dayton, Carson City, etc. See more at http://healthycomm.org/2014/11/09/healthy-communities-coalition-of-lyon-and-storey-director-quoted-in-rams-fall-2014-magazine/RAM will bring  free medical, dental, vision and mental health services in temporary clinics at Yerington, Carson City and Vegas in Oct 2015. HCC is the sponsoring legal entity for Yerington and Carson. The host agencies in Carson include CCHHS and Partnership Carson City, the host in Yerington is BGC, and the host in Vegas will be CARE Coalition. Volunteers are being recruited and can sign up at ramusa.org

You can also donate to HCC’s ongoing efforts to address dental needs of area children and adults by going to: http://www.gofundme.com/healthymouths

Great news for families: Healthy Communities was awarded $679,559 from the State of Nevada for a Home Visiting program through the Healthy Families America grant. Funds will be subgranted to direct service agencies Community Chest and Lyon County Human Services, and trained professionals on their staffs will implement the services. Scientific studies have confirmed the positive impacts of home visiting for children and families. These programs yield between $3 – $6 in savings to federal, state, and local governments for every dollar spent. Home Visiting services help support positive parenting, develop nurturing homes and promote healthy child development through regular home visits by trained professionals. Home visiting services assist pregnant women, mothers, fathers, and caregivers in the education of their young children to improve maternal and newborn health, improve school readiness, and to reduce child injuries, neglect, and abuse. Check out this 2014 resource list for families:
http://health.nv.gov/HomeVisiting/Homevisiting_ResourceDirectory2014.pdf