Another Reason to Run

I'm a little late posting this week but I have a good excuse. . .I've been running! I even ran in the snow the other evening!! Never in a million years would I think I would be the crazy person outside running in the snow. Surprisingly it really wasn't that bad. Guess we'll see how I feel when there is real snow and ice on the ground!

In my last post I talked about LZ Michigan and I will come back to that in future posts but I wanted to share the second big reason I'm doing this run. Like I mentioned before, the Engage Committee has 5 areas of focus and this run really impacts all 5 areas. One of our focuses is Health and it really is the second half of why I'm running. Now to learn more about me than you ever wanted to know. . . . .

For the most part, I have always been overweight. I was the fat kid in school who couldn't run a mile. It wasn't that I was completely unhealthy, we always ate well at home, I just didn't love physical activity and was naturally larger then the average kid. Unfortunately when you're a an overweight kid, other kids like to make fun of you. I can remember wanting to lose weight as early as 2nd grade and not a single day has gone by since then that I haven't thought about my weight. It's been an up and down struggle my whole life. I've tried every diet, program, and even some pills and nothing ever seemed to work. I learned not to take everything other people said to heart, but adults are often crueler than kids and it's really hard to not let them get to you. 

I managed to lose a decent amount of weight in college and keep most of it off for a few years. About 6 years ago it started creeping back on and a laundry list of other health issues starting popping up too. It wasn't all at once so it took a while before I realized there was something really wrong with me. I was working out and actually training to run my first 5K but I kept gaining weight. Along with that, I was constantly exhausted and had some very severe stomach issues. Looking back I can definitely say I was suffering from some sort of mild depression as well, and I think any of my close friends and family would agree with that. After a few years, a lot of doctors appointments, and what felt like hundreds of little tubes of blood being drawn I was finally diagnosed with Celiac Disease. Celiac is an auto-immune disorder which affects your intestine. There's no cure, and not a lot of solid information on why it can suddenly appear when you've had no previous symptoms, but it's easily manageable by eliminating gluten from your diet. Now I'm not sharing this with you because I'm promoting a gluten free diet, in fact it's not an effective diet if you're simply trying to lose weight, but because this is when I realized how important healthy eating is and when I decided I wanted to change my life around. Once you stop eating chips and fast food, you start realizing how amazing a salad or piece of fruit can taste and how much better you can feel. And once you start feeling better on the inside, you want your outside to match.

As I started feeling better I got back into working out and lost a small amount of weight. Somewhere along the way I had an epiphany that I really don't need to lose the weight. I am healthy according to every cholesterol and blood pressure test there is, but I think losing the weight would be a big step in my journey. It's something I have wanted to do for over 20 years, the only difference is this time I want to do it for myself.  I knew signing up for the 25K would force me to incorporate exercise into my every day life and that's what I want. I no longer want to lose weight and be done. I want to live a healthy, active life style until the day I die. When I have kids, I want them to learn early on how to be healthy and active and happy. I want to be a role model for others like me who have never been able to get away from that inner fat kid and don't think they can do it. If you are healthy, I promise that you will live a happier, more fulfilling life. You will want to, and be able to, participate in life instead of sitting on the sidelines. You don't need to be thin to be healthy but you need to feel good about yourself and take care of your body. We only get one chance at this, why waste it? 

With obesity, particularly in children, becoming such an epidemic now is the time to start having these conversations and getting out there to set an example. The goal of our Health Committee is to educate people and provide opportunities for families to learn how to eat well and get active. I'm letting the community in to follow my training for this run because I want people to see anyone can do it. I don't want praise, I don't want to be called an inspiration, in fact I absolutely hate being in the lime light. BUT, I want you to see that if this fat kid can do it, so can you.

What is LZ Michigan?

Week 2 already?? Yikes, this run is going to come up quicker than I would like to think! I had the privilege of meeting two wonderful women from Gazelle Sports this evening who have graciously volunteered to help me out with training and learning the ropes of how to be a runner. We started chatting and one of the first questions they asked was what is the Engage Committee and what was LZ Michigan? I've been so excited about the number of people who have volunteered to help with this undertaking that it never occurred to me that some of these people might not even know who we are or why we're doing what we're doing! So here are the basics:

The mission of the WGVU Engage Committee is to extend the outreach of WGVU through local events and programs in an effort to better serve the community. You can learn more at our website (http://www.wgvu.org/engage/) but more or less we look for ways to be actively involved in the community through a variety of events.

LZ Michigan was an event that actually took place prior to the creation of the Engage Committee. Not an easy event to describe but directly from the LZ Michigan website: 

This summer, WGVU TV will broadcast Vietnam War Stories, a 3-part documentary produced by Wisconsin Public Television. While recording more than 100 interviews for the series, producers kept hearing the same comment from many of the veterans: they weren't welcomed home after grueling tours of duty 40 years ago in Southeast Asia.

On Saturday, July 3, 2010, they finally got that "Welcome Home," when WGVU, Grand Valley State University, and the West Michigan Whitecaps, in conjunction with the broadcast of Vietnam War Stories, presented LZ Michigan. (LZ is an abbreviation for "Landing Zone," military slang for a helicopter clearing where supplies or troops are landed.)

The LZ Michigan event at Fifth Third Ballpark honored and welcomed home Michigan's Vietnam War Veterans. This statewide effort culminated in a day of recognition and celebration of their service and sacrifice, for veterans, their families and the public. The event was not political or military. It was the community's expression of thanks, support and welcome for the men and women who served in Vietnam.

The July 3, 2010 event, LZ Michigan, featured a special evening celebration inside Grand Rapids Fifth Third Ballpark, which honored and thanked our community's Vietnam Veterans.

The ceremony honored those who were killed in action, those still missing and unaccounted for and the surviving vets, many of whom continue to suffer from injuries incurred in Southeast Asia.

The event featured speakers, recognition, musical entertainment and videos from the premiere of the Vietnam War Stories documentary, and closed with fireworks.

Any profits from LZ Michigan were to go into an endowment fund that would provide a scholarship to a Veteran or Veteran's dependent to assist with the cost of attending Grand Valley State University. Like I mentioned in the last post, we were far from making enough money to start this endowment fund. 

Now the fun part, where do I come into all this??

I learned of the LZ Michigan event because a family member worked for Fifth Third Ballpark at the time. My dad is a Vietnam Veteran so it seemed like a fitting event for me to volunteer to help with. I went to a few committee meetings and was completely blown away by the passion these people had for this event and for supporting our Veterans in general. I really didn't know anything about WGVU. I knew what PBS was (who doesn't love Sesame Street?!) and that they had something to do with radio but that really was it. I wasn't too concerned with any of that anyways, I was here to help with LZ Michigan. I'm really not even sure how to put in words how amazing the planning of LZ Michigan was, let alone the actual event. As time went on, our volunteer committee grew and grew. I truly couldn't believe how many people were willing to give of their time and resources to make this happen and they were doing it for families like mine. 

The day of the event came and it was mind blowing. We had the big map out where Veterans could write their name of where they served in Vietnam,. We had the traveling wall where they could find the names of fallen comrades. We had the Patriot Guard Riders. We had military vehicles, food, music, fireworks, and we had hundreds of Veterans who finally got the Welcome Home they were denied so many years ago. It's really hard to explain an event like this but to see men in their 50's, 60's and older in tears because they had been waiting for a moment like this their whole lives is something you will never forget. 

The war was not something we ever really talked about in my family. My dad fought in Vietnam but that's pretty much all I knew. I knew there were plenty of emotional scars from that time but like so many others it was something that was buried away and easier to not deal with. LZ Michigan offered these men and women a day to talk freely to one another and to their families and to realize that none of them are alone. It allowed conversations to take place and wounds to be heeled. It was something that you really can't completely grasp if you weren't witness to it, but trust me when I say it was life changing for a lot of people and it's something that, as a community, we can not let die. 

This is why I am running. We need to keep this event alive, and as a committee we want to expand LZ Michigan to include all Veterans. We want to continue to put on events and find ways to reach out to our Veterans and give something back to them. This weekend is Veterans Day and I would encourage you to do something to say thanks. The Grand Rapids parade is Saturday morning starting at 10am downtown. It's the perfect opportunity to show appreciation and respect for our soldiers. My personal challenge to you is to find a Veteran or active member of the Military and have a conversation. You would be amazed at the impact a complete stranger can have on your life if you take the time to listen.

Welcome Back - The Journey Ahead

Hello, and welcome back to the WGVU Engage Blog! It has been a while since we've done much with this blog but it’s time to change that. As a committee, we just celebrated our 2nd year anniversary and couldn't be happier with how far we've come! From 12 original members to well over 300 people (and counting), we have a lot more we want to do and have some REALLY exciting things coming up in our 3rd year. One of those REALLY exciting things directly involves me, as well as our five Engage Initiatives; Inclusion, Health, Arts, Veterans, and Education (which can cleverly be remembered by the acronym I HAVE). Because of that, I get to be your resident blogger for at least the next 7 months, but hopefully long past that as well. I am going to attempt to post once a week, and I promise the posts will be something to look forward to. I don’t think we did ourselves justice with the previous blog posts and it’s high time we shared with the world what our committee is doing and why it’s important. So with that being said, lets go!!

If I’m going to be talking at you (although my hopes are I’m ENGAGING you), you should probably know the basics of who on earth I am. I do not work for WGVU, I cannot afford to financially support WGVU, I’m not being paid to write this blog, and to be honest, until 2 years ago I knew nothing about WGVU. I am a member of the community who happened to volunteer for an event WGVU was putting on, and that event just happen to change my life. My name is Alison and I don’t give my support to anything I don’t 100% believe in. I have been a community member in West Michigan all my life and am a proud Grand Rapidian to the core. I’ve started on a long, personal journey because of WGVU Engage and I think it is something that needs to be archived and shared. Lucky for me they like me over at WGVU and entrusted me with the password the this blog :)

With so many weeks of writing ahead I’m not going to get too in depth now but here are the basics. The event that changed my life was LZ Michigan back on July 3, 2010. Long story short, any proceeds from LZ Michigan were to be put into an Endowment Fund as a scholarship for Veterans or Veterans’ dependents. (I will explain the event and scholarship in more detail later). Unfortunately there wasn't much in the way of proceeds and there are rules on how long you can take to fund an Endowment. Like I said, I don’t work at WGVU so I don’t know the ins and outs, I just know if we don’t get this thing funded by next July it goes bye bye. I am the dependent of a Veteran who was blessed to be able to go to college and I am not OK with this scholarship “going bye bye”. It needs upwards of $20,000 to be established which is no small undertaking. I can’t financially do much to help, but that doesn't mean I can’t do anything, so I volunteered to run a 25K race in order to raise the funds. Sounds simple enough: get people to sponsor a mile, run the race, raise a few grand. Biggest problem. . .running the race. I am not a runner. I am not an athlete. I have been overweight my entire life and get winded walking up a flight of stairs, so logically I would volunteer to run 1400 miles (and yes 25K feels like 1400 miles). This scholarship is that important to me. LZ Michigan changed my life and this is my way of saying thanks.  

I have a long journey ahead, but have so many countless people helping me out, it’s truly humbling. What’s even more humbling are the people who have said I've inspired them to want to do something in the community themselves. This is what WGVU Engage is all about. It’s so easy to sit back and complain about the problems in our community but we are standing up and doing something about it. I am standing up and doing something that is absolutely terrifying, overwhelming, and intimidating. The running part is going to be hard enough but the sharing with you why I’m doing this and letting you into this very personal journey is what’s even scarier. My hopes are I do inspire you to get up and do something. Even if it’s not with Engage, do something to improve our community, or to improve yourself. The minute we all start living up to our full potential is the minute the world around us becomes that much brighter and this whole “getting up and doing something” becomes that much more contagious.  

So that's the basics of where we're heading. I hope you will enjoy reading as much as I enjoying writing and if you're really enjoying it, the biggest compliment I could get would be for you to share this with your friends. Until next week. . . .I guess I'm off to run!

Women & Girls Lead

WGVU Engage is very excited to be partnering with ITVS and the Women and Girls Lead national committee to focus on educating and connecting women, girls and their allies to address the challenges of this century. The first of many upcoming events focused on this is on Wednesday, November 16th where we will view a recap screening of the program Women, War & Peace which will be followed by a panel discussion starting at 7pm. The event will take place in the Loosemore Auditorium on GVSU's Pew Campus. To learn more about this initiative you can visit wgvu.org/wgl or find us on facebook!

Growing Hope Against Hunger

The Engage Committee has decided on a variety of topics to focus on and one very important one that affects more people than we can imagine is children's hunger. Tomorrow night starting at 7 be sure to join us at Celebration Cinema North for a screening and panel discussion about Children's Food Insecurities in West Michigan. This is going to be a great event bringing people together who are affected by hunger and those who are looking to help. The WGVU van will be on site all day to collect items for Kids' Food Basket. Some much needed items include:

-Peanut Butter
-Fruit/pudding cups
-100% fruit juice boxes
-Cracker packs
-Sandwich bags

We hope to see you there!

Food, Wine, and All That Jazz

If you enjoy good food and good drinks, please consider joining us for this fabulous event coming up on October 28th! WGVU and D&W Fresh Market will be filling the Grand Rapids Public Museum with over 300 different wines and beers to sample, as well as an assortment of gourmet food. You will want to come hungry as "samples" doesn't really do the food assortment justice. This event really, truly is one of a kind. My husband and I attended last year for the first time and were beyond impressed. We consider ourselves "foodies" and I have been called a "wino" more than once in my life and we couldn't have asked for a better selection of food and wines to sample. Along with the huge variety, everyone working the event was very knowledgeable about the products they were serving and were overly accommodating to my food sensitivities. I've attended many events similar in nature and this was by far the most enjoyable. . . and since I first attended the event prior to being involved with WGVU I would say that's NOT a biased opinion :)

The event will feature live music by The Steve Hilger Jazz Quintet and runs from 7:30-10pm on Friday the 28th. Tickets are $60 and you must be 21 years of age with a valid photo ID. I should also point out that your ticket is all inclusive. Once you are in the event, you do NOT need to pay any extra or purchase tickets to sample. Tickets are available at all D&W Fresh Market stores or through WGVU at 1-800-442-2771. Hope to see you there. . .I promise you will not be disappointed!

What has the Engage Committee been up to?

Alright, so we may have gotten a little ahead of ourselves on Friday. Friday wasn't actually the "official" Fall Arts kick-off but we were just so excited about the upcoming programs that we posted a week too soon! The OFFICIAL kick-off is THIS Friday at 9pm. You can find a list of all the upcoming programs here: Fall Arts Festival!

So another exciting announcement, WGVU Public Broadcasting has been awarded a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as part of its nationwide American Graduate Program. This project will provide resources for WGVU and the Engage Committee to raise awareness about the high school dropout rate in our area. This is a crisis nationwide and often we don't realize that those affected are in our neighborhoods too. Not only will WGVU have on-air programming addressing the issue but the Engage Committee is actively working on various events to bring light to this issue in our area and to address way to we can start to solve the problem. Stay tuned for event announcements and as always, if you are interested in being a part of these events please let us know!

In addition, the WGVU Engage Committee has made a commitment to tackling childhood hunger and we have a slew of events and programs coming up that address this issue. In partnership with the Sesame Street Workshop WGVU currently has packets available on:


Food for Thought Initiative - Eating Well on a Budget
A bilingual, multi-media program designed to help support families with children between the ages of 2 and 8, who are coping with uncertain or limited access to affordable and nutritious food

"A" is for Asthma - and for Active!
Geared toward children and adults, showing children what to do when they have trouble breathing, and explaining to adults what they can do to help
Materials encourage parents/caregivers to work with the child and their doctor in ensuring that the child maintains an active lifestyle Project conveys messages through a Sesame Street video story

Healthy Habit for Life - Helping Children Develop Healthy Habits Through Fun and Play
Offering simple strategies to help parents/caregivers instill healthy behaviors in children.

We will also have various events addressing this issue as well and a list of resources available for those seeking assistance and those wanting to help.

Be sure to keep up with the blog or find us on facebook to be the first know what events will be taking place and when!

One event you can mark on your calendar NOW is Veterans Day. Please plan to join us for the annual Veteran's Day parade in downtown Grand Rapids. LZ Michigan is proud to promote the event and we would love to see the community come together to support our local veterans.

You should also set aside October 28th for our Food, Wine, and All That Jazz event at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

Whew! That's not even everything the Engage Committee is working on but at least your some-what up to date on what's going on! If there is anything you are interested in helping with or want to volunteer for please let us know. We are always looking for volunteers and would love to introduce you the WGVU family!