WKU News Release

WKU Honored At Get Healthy Kentucky Summit

October 23, 2007

Bowling Green, Ky. - Gov. Ernie Fletcher recently honored officials from Western Kentucky University at the first Governor’s Get Healthy Kentucky Summit, a highly successful event that focused attention on obesity and developed action plans to fight it.

The Governor’s Office of Wellness and Physical Activity and the University of Louisville sponsored the summit.
Officials from WKU joined other stakeholders from health care, public health, education, business and technology communities around Kentucky. The first of its kind in the state, the event gave participants the chance to communicate openly about goals and initiatives for wellness.

“We are working to change the way people think and feel about wellness,” said Gov. Fletcher. “The leaders of the Western Kentucky service region have shown that they share my passion. Now they are working to implement strategies learned from the health summit.”

WKU officials were presented with a Community Health Award, an honor bestowed by the governor to recognize efforts to improve the health and well-being of their communities.

“We are honored to be recognized by the governor for our involvement in the summit,” said Doug Newton, WKU Employee Wellness Program Manager. “The objective of the WKU group coming out of the summit is to strengthen participation in the South Central Kentucky Get Fit regional coalition. This coalition is making strides toward increasing and maintaining healthy lifestyle behaviors among citizens in our region.”

Representatives from Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Eastern Kentucky University, Morehead State University, Kentucky State University, the Kentucky Community College and Technical System, the University of Kentucky and summit co-sponsor U of L also participated in the all-day event. Various speakers addressed wellness topics such as reversing the rate of childhood obesity and implementing community wellness initiatives.

The summit included breakout sessions where participants were encouraged to discuss with one another different ways to achieve community objectives.

For the past several months, Gov. Fletcher has traveled with staff from the Governor’s Office of Wellness and Physical Activity across Kentucky to promote the new wellness initiative, Get Healthy Kentucky (GHK). The governor created the program was created by the governor as a way to educate and inspire Kentuckians to take a more active role in their personal wellness.

The GHK model incorporates a three-tiered system of increased physical activity, good nutrition and eating habits and tobacco use prevention and cessation, which health experts view as being an effective mechanism for chronic disease prevention.

More information about the GHK program can be obtained from www.gethealthy.ky.gov.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Doug Newton at (270) 745-2501.

-WKU-
"A leading American university with international reach"

Office of Media Relations
Western Kentucky University
1906 College Heights Blvd., Bowling Green, Ky. 42101-3576
Phone: (270)745-4295 - Fax: (270)7455387 - E-Mail: western@wku.edu