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Wellness Education Component

To educate the general student population about high risk cancer behaviors (i.e. smoking, multiple sex partners, sunbathing, stress, poor nutrition, poor exercise and sleep habits) and empower children of cancer by showing them they can be in control of certain parts of their health, and therefore much of their destiny. We also want to educate the public that much of their cancer risk is due to lifestyle behaviors in the late teens and early twenties when DNA mutations in the body are starting to take hold. A healthy adolescence and early adulthood is essential to a healthy middle age and beyond.

To establish an annual event on college campuses aimed directly at the student body to establish healthy living habits that will reduce cancer risks in this population.

We at the MaryEllen Locher Foundation® propose to help scholarship recipients facilitate one peer education event on campus to highlight cancer risks and prevention. We will help provide written materials and intend to pool speakers from local cancer organizations.

Our hope is that this event will evolve into a nationally sponsored event with the help of other cancer non-profits, a national pharmaceutical company, participating colleges and universities, and local community based hospitals. We hope to expand to high schools and middle schools over a 5 to 10 year period.

The MaryEllen Locher Foundation® will market a step by step how-to promotional package to hospitals and colleges to help them set up and follow through on a campus Wellfest event, funded nationwide primarily by the sponsoring pharmaceutical company.

Individual booths will be set up in a carnival atmosphere, each one hosting a game or fun event to teach students approximately three facts about a particular topic. Students completing the game or event will receive a token to be exchanged at the final booth for a particular prize relating to each topic. For example, a booth hosting a game on proper water consumption and the role dehydration of cells plays in leaving a person susceptible to disease would offer a token good for a bottle of water. Or a booth on skin cancer prevention would provide a token for a bottle of sunscreen or self-tanning crème.
Local medical professionals and medical groups could sponsor particular booths and help provide promotional prizes. For instance, sleep masks promoting a local sleep disorder center would be given in exchange for tokens 'won' at a booth on poor sleep habits and their impact on the body.
Hospital employees could work with health based and/or service organizations, marketing, or social groups (such as campus radio stations, Greek organizations, nursing students, etc.) to help man the booths and keep the Wellfest organized and running smoothly.

Another area separate from the educational booths would contain or promote a campus fitness event to promote healthy living and regular exercise. This could also include a national fitness sponsor doing some kind of exercise exhibition, providing a celebrity speaker, or simply helping to sponsor a walk, or public aerobic event.

Our 1st
Recipient

Ginny Straub

	Applicant's Words:
	"I have tried to adjust to being the mom of my household. Every morning I get my 6-year-old sister and 10- year- old brother ready for school to catch the bus. I have adjusted to putting others' needs before my own. This is one of the many valuable characteristics which my mother taught me."

	Application Deadline for 2009 Scholarships is February 15th, 2009! Click Here for Details!