A Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service program begun in March has over 75 county employees learning all that goes into having a healthy lifestyle.  “The Shelby County Employee Wellness Program is a program to promote a healthy and happy work environment and to encourage positive lifestyle changes through nutrition and fitness,” said Jheri-Lynn Smith, Shelby County Extension agent for family and consumer sciences.  “This is a statewide program that is initiated through the Texas Association of Counties (TAC).  It ties in to our mission of educating the public concerning healthy lifestyles and choices, chronic disease management, stress management, and more.” 

Hosted through TAC’s Health and Employee Benefits Pool (HEBP), the Healthy County Wellness Program invites interested counties to track health education and activity.  On its website, TAC offers several wellness programs and ideas for keeping employees accountable for their health.

“The wellness program operates all year long, we began in March with a survey to find out topics of interest,” stated Smith.  From this list a once a month Lunch-and-Learn program was established in which employees meet in the courthouse meeting room for a healthy lunch and to listen to a short program on a topic of interest.  “This year, our menu is comprised of choices from the Mediterranean diet plan.  This month I am featuring Greek chicken with whole wheat penne and caprese salad and our presentation will be, ‘Growing and Cooking with Culinary Herbs.’”

On the fitness side, several employees participated in the recent Biggest Loser program in which Deputy County Clerk, Jennifer Fountain and Commissioner Jimmy Lout were the program promoters.    The Sonic Boom Challenge, a TAC program utilized in the Shelby County Wellness Program tasked participants with keeping track of the amount of steps they took each day by fastening a pedometer to their footwear.  This was a completion based upon the number of steps taken each day and employees could login to a website to view their and other employee’s daily results.  Smith stated, “We had 47 employees participate in the challenge this year.  From that group, 27 met the challenge of walking 5,000 steps a day for 40 days.  I was recently pleased to learn that our own Debbra Johnson, legal assistant to the District Attorney, placed first in the state with 1,959,597 steps taken during the 8 week challenge.”

 

Debbra Johnson, Top winner in the state Sonic Boom Challenge

 

Top 10 employees in Sonic Boom Challenge

Rank	Employee	Total Steps	Total Time
1	Debbra Johnson	1,959,597	25,621.40
2	Jennifer Fountain	1,347,567	14,972.20
3	Jayne Crain	1,329,022	16,679.40
4	Marlene Hernandez	595,627	9,562.80
5	Jenney Chessher	560,075	10,166.90
6	Veronica Berry	520,310	9,069.40
7	Teresa Vazquez	520,310	9,006.70
8	Darlene Clark	400,216	8,240.30
9	Shawna Walker	369,083	5,302.10
10	Teresa Hughes	348,686	6,526.60

 

This past week, Nacogdoches Medical Center provided free health screenings to employees and their family members for glucose, cholesterol, blood pressure, and weight.  They are also scheduled to return in September to conduct a free PVD screening in which a person can be assessed for possible arterial blockage.

Beyond all the physical benefits that coincide with increased physical health are fiscal benefits promised through HEBP.  “Each employee that completes a health risk assessment on the Blue Cross Blue Shield website receives a $50 gift certificate in which they can select from large list of vendors.  Blue points are earned on BCBS each time a member logs in, which can be redeemed for all kinds of gift cards as well.”

The next event in the county’s Wellness Program is a Walk Across Texas challenge wherein employees form competitive 8 member teams and strive to walk all 839 miles across Texas in an 8 week time period.

If you would like additional information regarding Extension programs, please contact Jheri-Lynn Smith, CEA-FCS at 936-598-7744 or jheri-lynn.smith@ag.tamu.edu.