By Roger Allen
The Montezuma Lions Club is one of four area Lions clubs partnering with Lions Clubs International to sponsor and conduct a comprehensive Diabetes Prevention Program. (See the separate story in this edition that provides full details.) Montezuma Lions donated $1,000 to help seed the project and are helping implement it.
A screening in Montezuma will be Wednesday, Nov. 20, from 4 to 6 p.m., in the school auditorium (enter through the south doors). There will be no charge for being screened.
Heather Coffman, Ph.D., is the corporate wellness coordinator at the hospital in Grinnell and will lead the pre-diabetes prevention project as the program director. She will facilitate the project providing education and risk assessments and will ultimately serve as the lifestyle coach.
The screening will be funded by a $52,000 grant from Lions Clubs International ($39,000) and $13,000 from local sources including Grinnell Regional Medical Center (GRMC), Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance, Manatt’s, Inc. and Mayflower plus the Lions clubs of Grinnell, Kellogg and Victor in addition to Montezuma.
The project is designed to increase awareness of pre-diabetes by identifying higher risk individuals, increasing the availability of – and enrollment in – a diabetes prevention program, and developing a referral process to a comprehensive follow-up care program for those identified as pre-diabetic or diabetic.
Other Lions club news
Karen McNaul, the Lions club’s chairperson for blood drives, reminds citizens that there will be a blood drive on Wednesday, Nov. 6, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Community Hope Church.
At the Oct. 28 meeting the club approved a donation of $100 to the Iowa Lions Visual Impairment Camp held annually at Camp Courageous, sponsored entirely by Iowa Lions.
Mary Ann Nickle, dean of the Grinnell Campus of Iowa Valley Community College, was a guest speaker at the meeting. She spoke about the services and the needs of the Grinnell campus and the bond proposal on the ballot at the Nov. 5 election.
Nickle reported Iowa Valley CC-Grinnell serves between 300 and 400 students. She said when she became dean in 2010, most students were adults returning for additional education. Currently most students are high school students in concurrent enrollment.
Nickle noted that last year 271 Poweshiek County high school students took concurrent classes and amassed 2,542 credits. This greatly reduces their total college education costs.