The Healthy Lombard Foundation is a 501c3 village-wide initiative that was created in 2010 to address the epidemic of Childhood Obesity and promote a Healthy Lifestyle for all individuals. To accomplish this mission, Healthy Lombard uses a Triple A Approach of Awareness, Activities and Achievement.
Following is a review of our efforts during 2020
AWARENESS
- As of December 2020, HL identifies 40 Partners with links to them from the HL website.
- Major Sponsors have their logo linked on the main page of the HL website.
- The Healthy Lombard website contains a Calendar for Community Events, a daily blog, links to all partners and generated over 70,700 hits per month since its creation in 2013.
- Continuing in 2020, the website resource links, and blog topics were reviewed and revised to focus more closely on including only those that support the mission of Healthy Lombard
- HL partners with the College of DuPage Nursing Department to acquire student-generated, health-themed posts for its daily blog.
- HL maintained and posted on its social media sites on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
- HL keeps monthly records of the number of hours volunteered by board members. In 2020 these totaled 615 hours for an average of 77.5 hours per board member.
- Promoted “Apple Crunch Day” throughout Lombard and surrounding suburbs and partnered with Jewel/Osco to provide FREE apples for all Lombard students and residents and IRV & SHELLY’S fresh pick our efforts by providing 2 bushels of apples for Healthy Lombard who provided two bushels of apples from Mick Klug Farm IN Saint Joseph, Michigan for students at St. John’s Lutheran School in Lombard.
- Distributed information and signage to promote Teal Pumpkin, a campaign that encourages distributing non-food items to kids at Halloween
- Distributed Certificates of Support and window clings to all Healthy Lombard Partners to display as a way to build awareness of the organization.
- Publishes a monthly Healthy Happenings on-line newsletter featuring events and information provided by our partners to distribute to individuals and families that participates in a Healthy Lombard activity. In 2020, we had 160 subscribers with an open rate of 24%.
- Provided partners with information on upcoming Health Fairs and other health-related events in the area
ACTIVITIES
Winter
- #ISPY –In 2019, we invited kids (ages 5 – 10) to play the “I Spy with my Little Eye” game with a new twist. Participants were asked to post an original candid snapshot on our Healthy Lombard Facebook Page of Holiday Season activities with the hashtag #I Spy beginning December 1 to January 1 to have a chance to win a $50 Gift Card.
- Online Activities – In addition to an original Healthy Lombard crossword puzzle, a list of other indoor activities were posted for kids. These included games such as a marshmallow straw race, a snow shovel relay race, snowman bowling, mitten hunt, snow in the chimney, musical snowflakes, and snowball toss.
Spring
- Go Fly A Kite – Healthy Lombard had to cancel this event because of COVID-19.
Summer
- FLAT APPLE – This summer program was designed to keep kids active during non-school months. The Activity Tracker Sheet introduced in 2019 was used again and was very successful because of restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Using these sheets, Flat Apple participants logged almost 33,000 minutes of activity this past summer. Each time a participant (ages 4 – 14) logged 300 minutes on their sheet, he/she earned a participation ticket. Students also took selfies showing themselves engaging in healthy activities (swimming, playing ball, etc.) and posted them on the Healthy Lombard Selfie Facebook page. This year participants also post short videos that can be viewed on the Healthy Lombard YouTube Channel.
- Sponsored a series of Healthy Kid Running Series that was cancelled due to COVID-19. These funds will be held and used for the races once the restrictions due to CVID-19 are lifted. Fall
- Partnered with the Kiwanis Club of Lombard to distribute 32 Comfort Dolls to local pediatric hospitals, doctor offices, and missionaries to use with children to reduce the stress of having to undergo a medical procedure.
Fall
- Y.M. (Get Yourself Moving) Bags for primary grade students at St John Lutheran School and as part of the after-school programs at the Tri-Town YMCA and the Lombard Park District were NOT distributed because of COVID-19 restrictions
ACHIEVEMENT
Receives referrals from:
- The Lombard Chamber of Commence
- Yorktown Center Shopping Mall and other organizations as the group to contact on how to become involved in improving the wellness of the residents
- Serve as a community partner with:
- The American Heart Association beginning in 2020
- The College of DuPage School of Nursing
- District 87 Wellness Committee, since 2012
- THE DCHD’s FORWARD Initiative since 2010.
- FORWARD’s Healthy Municipalities Committee
- Higher Education Service Council
- Obesity Action Coalition
-
Actively Supports:
– Illinois Public Health Institute
– The Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity (IAPO)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
- HL’s budget for 2020 was $8000. These funds were obtained through private donations, Amazon Smiles donation, and our five levels of sponsorships from local businesses and organizations
- In 2020, the HL Board consisted of Founder & Board President Jay Wojcik, Vice President (position open), Secretary Nancy Nance, Finance Officer Tod Altenburg, and Board Members Lee Fuller, Rohma Katrawaia, Ashley Marsh, Angela Mullins, Joe McCann, and Emily Penn. Also assisting in the role of Advisor is former board member Stephanie Schiszik.
