Nenana Wellness Coalition

Minutes

December 30, 2008

The Nenana Wellness Coalition is an alliance of representatives from various organizations, government agencies, community groups and individuals that meets weekly to discuss, evaluate, coordinate, consolidate, celebrate and help implement plans for improving the wellness and quality of life in Nenana Alaska.

There were seven in attendance today, including: Mike Anderson, Bonnie Reed, Tim Horn, Walter & Andrea Tommy, Kat McElroy and David Poppe. We had tamale pie, bean and ham hock soup, oatmeal raisin cookies and dried fruit and nuts for lunch.

WELCOME followed by the READING OF MISSION STATEMENT: By this week’s chairperson, David Poppe.

PRAYER: Was lead by Kat McElroy, followed by the PLEDGE OF ALLEGIENCE.

PRESENTATION OF AGENDA AND CALL FOR MODIFICATIONS: There were three modifications to the agenda as presented.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Kat submitted the minutes electronically last Tuesday and they have been posted on the WIN web site linked at www.railbelt.com. David Poppe has reconfigured Kat’s word processing program to default to an earlier version of Word so the problems with other people being unable to open the minutes in the updated Word program on their computers should no longer be an issue.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: There were no guests today.

Speakers/Topics

Weight machine: Kris Capps has supplied us with an email image of a weight machine similar to the one that Denali School District is willing to give to WIN. We have discussed various possible localities for the machine. Our common desire is to have it in a location where it might be most accessible and used by the widest range of people. Mike took the specs and will ask John Grimes about locating the weight machine in the Nenana Student Living Center.

Free-cycle: This is scheduled for January 17th, 5 P.M. the venue is still unknown. Kat will contact Rebecca Troxel to see if she is making flyers for this event and to see if the Troxel’s have talked to Sherrie about using the Civic Center. In addition to the chili cook-off, we had discussed having Eric Gebhart do a short presentation using the dream catcher activity to talk about ways we can support our local youth. Tim will email to see when he gets back from winter holiday.

Envisioning Wellness: We have no speakers yet scheduled for January, February or March. Possible presenters per suggestions during this meeting are: city mayor Jason Mayrand, our local state trooper Malik, the new magistrate Mr. Fisher, Mara the worm lady from Cooperative Extension and Carol Gallo. Tim will ask Mara; Kat will ask Jason and Malik; Andrea will ask Carol. Tentative dates discussed were, the last two Tuesdays of those months, 1-20, 1-27, 2-17, 2-20, and 3-24, 3-31.

Public Assistance Vendor Fair: Tim will be attending the Vendor Fair in Fairbanks which is scheduled for next week Tuesday, January 6th, from 10 A.M.-2 P.M. It is being held at the David Salmon Tribal Hall. Anyone wishing to attend with her is more than welcome, although she also has a doctor’s appointment in town that morning . She will bring back information for WIN as we have been discussing holding something similar here in Nenana. We thought it would be more accurate to term it a “Resource Fair.”

Sober Housing: Nothing to report on this issue. However, Andrea has begun an apprenticeship with Carol Gallo. She will be doing some drafting. She has previous experience with AutoCAD and doing blueprints. This will allow her to expand and hone her skills.

Health Fair: The WIN Health Fair will be held in the school this year, in March, and will be focusing on youth health issues. Susan Kaufman and Kathy Gebhart have “a thousand ideas” for the fair. Tim suggested that we put the Health Fair onto the agenda as a weekly item. Tim suggested asking Kathy to be our site coordinator this year. Kat will contact Crowley to see about corporate funding, per their suggestion last year. Tim suggested we also ask Barnes & Noble as last year they said that they focused on funding for youth projects, which this will be. Kat will also locate our begging letter and update it.

WELLNESS THOUGHT:

Success is getting up more times than you get knocked down. Anonymous

Updates/Announcements:

Kat: Railbelt has been unusually busy over the Christmas holiday. Quarterly reports are due and we’ll be working on those all next week, after the New Year.

David: There are icicles coming out of our faucet at minus 40 degrees F.

Walter: Bought a “new” diesel truck, nice engine, but are having problems with the fuel pump. Not fun to have to mess around with at 40 below.

Andrea: Someone stole my two parrots down in South Carolina. They are like my children, hand-raised since they were hatchlings. There is an ongoing police investigation.

Bonnie: There will be a lunch tomorrow (Wednesday, 12-31-08) at the Senior Center at Noon, followed by a meal at the Meda Lord Senior Housing at 2 P.M. January 14th will be Bennie Albert’s 105 birthday party celebration at his house (Grandma Edna’s new house), at 6 P.M. A meal will be served. Everyone is invited. He enjoys getting small gifts, gum or snuff have been suggested.

Tim: New Year’s Eve celebration tomorrow night at the Tribal Hall. Pot Luck dinner at 8 P.M. followed by a large fireworks display at midnight. Also, the Bahai’i study group just concluded “Reflections on the Life of The Spirit.” They will be celebrating with a gathering to discuss “Reflections on Life after Death” Wednesday, January 7th, at 7 P.M. at Bonnie Reed’s house.

Open floor for comments/questions/discussion:

None

Adjournment: 2:10 P.M.