Three big health events were merged for the first time Saturday in efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle in the Commonwealth. <\/p>\n
The 5th Annual Great Marianas Smokeout, the 11th Annual Don\u2019t Be A Turkey Walk, and Diabetes Awareness Month celebrations held at the Oleai Sports Complex attracted close to 300 participants who took part in various activities as early as 5:30am.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll partners are here to maximize resources and we\u2019re all together joining for one cause, which is to promote healthy living in the CNMI. It\u2019s a great success,\u201d event chair Velma Del Rosario of the Community Guidance Center said in an interview.<\/p>\n
The event featured activities like the candle light vigil, the walk around the track field, food demonstrations, and free health screenings from Hardt Eye Clinic and Marianas Eye Institute. Uncle Ben\u2019s Studio provided entertainment to the participants.<\/p>\n
Community partners like CGC, the Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research, Extension and Education Service, Ayuda Network, and the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs also set up information booths that educated participants about their respective programs. <\/p>\n
Bill Limes, Community Outreach Program coordinator, said they participate in the Great Marianas Smokeout every year. <\/p>\n
\u201cI encourage the public, especially the youth, to stop smoking to prevent them from getting cancer,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Polly Omechelang of NMC-CREES, which is a member of the substance abuse and diabetes coalitions, said they regularly setup a booth at the event to promote their programs while supporting a good cause. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs a coalition member, we want to educate the public about non-communicable diseases and encourage eating healthy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Del Rosario said the first 200 participants were given free T-shirts while others were given giveaways such as pamphlets, stickers, children\u2019s books, and toys. <\/p>\n
At the event, Del Rosario disclosed that smokers were encouraged to hand over their cigarette packs and were informed about the negative effects of smoking tobacco and chewing. They were given gas coupons in return. <\/p>\n
Del Rosario said the event targeted those who have smoked, are suffering from diabetes, or have high blood pressure to underscore that healthy living is \u201cvery, very important\u201d for the prevention of non-communicable diseases. <\/p>\n
She noted that there were many younger members of the community who participated in the event. <\/p>\n
\u201cKids we\u2019re actually walking around the track with their parents, which is a very, very beautiful sight. It\u2019s important to start them into the healthy habit while they\u2019re young because they\u2019ll continue on and most likely end up not smoking or eating healthy,\u201d Del Rosario told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
But their efforts to encourage a healthy lifestyle in the islands doesn\u2019t end there, said Del Rosario.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our work,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just our job\u2014it\u2019s everybody\u2019s job. We need to join efforts and promote healthy lifestyles,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three big health events were merged for the first time Saturday in efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle in the Commonwealth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}