STEP UP youth made an amazing collection of postcards this summer. Topics range from anti-tobacco to domestic abuse and more. We hope to promote bi-culturalism and positive messages to the community. Please check them out down below. Share this post with your friends and family!
Let’s go back to school with a positive mindset on living healthy! One thing to encourage your peers and friends is to be tobacco-free. Although statistics shows that tobacco use is gradually decreasing, many are still at risk.
Use some of these tips to support this cause:
Here are some quick facts to help you learn more about being tobacco:
Credits to www.cdc.gov
Hikers on the Cerro Grande Trail at Bandelier National Monument.
If you have specific activity questions, contact the Mississippi River Visitor Center at (651) 293-0200. We also offer programs to organized groups such as community centers and summer school groups.
Programs and Activities
Help support your local farmers and small business owners by going to your local farmers market this summer! This week is National Farmers Week and it is from August 2-8. Take advantage of locally grown foods that are cheap and healthy. Here are some tips on how to enjoy the farmers market.
Photo credits belong to www.cdc.gov
Join us for the 1st ever Hmong Dance Drama – Longing for Qeej
Minneapolis, Minnesota – In kicking off the Bicultural Active Living Lifestyle (BALL) Campaign, Asian Media Access and Iny Asian Dance Theater join hands to showcase the first ever Hmong Dance Drama – Longing for Qeej at both Cities – Minneapolis and St. Paul, to help the communities to recognize the beauty of the cultural exercises.
ST PAUL:
July 19 (Sunday), 5:30pm at
Central Park Frank Rog Amphitheater
2540 Lexington Ave. N
Roseville, MN 55113
MINNEAPOLIS:
July 23 (Thurs), 5:30pm at
Outside of Asian Media Access, on the Plymouth Ave
2418 Plymouth Ave. N.,
Minneapolis, MN 55411
Both events are part of Asian Media Access’ BALL strategy to emphasis on bicultural healthy living by utilizing cultural pride and parent involvement as motivations for youth to be proud of themselves, and exercise more through cultural exercises. By wearing beautiful costume, listening to traditional music, stepping into ancient footsteps, it gives youth a sense of self-esteem, and cultural identity other sports may not offer, along with strong parents’ support in preserving the cultural traditions. Therefore, both AMA and IADT have supported youth learning/performing Asian dances as a way to live healthier in a bicultural environment.
Longing for Qeej will be performed by Iny Asian Dance Theater’s 109 dancers, which is a dance drama adapted from Hmong folktale portraying the origin of Qeej – a traditional Hmong music instrument, a mouth organ with six bamboo pipes of different lengths attached to a wooden air chamber. Hmong believes that Qeej can communicate between the heaven and the earth, the living and the dead. One of the opening mysterious dance – the Dragon Dance will be performed by Iny Asian Dance Theater’s most advanced group – MN Sun Shine. The team has long history of winning titles of Hmong New Year Dance Competition. Not only the dance includes a beautiful dragon head with matching gold/red masks, MN Sun Shine dancers has also performed this powerful dance with explosive physical capacities along with beautiful costume, and refreshing Asian music.
This is not the first time Iny Asian Dance Theater brought the Hmong dances/folklore to the broader audience. Led and Choreographed by Acclaimed Hmong Artist, Iny Xiong, Iny Asian Dance Theater has successfully served more than 200 students annually. Its mission is to broaden students’ ability and general public’s appreciation of Asian Dances through teaching and performance, and their major projects include: 1) Bringing the Asian Traditional Dances to Life, with a special focus on Asian Indian, Chinese, Hmong, Laotian and Thai dances through weekly dance classes and community engagement performances; 2) Sharing Asian cultures and talents with mainstream audience to build a better community of appreciation of diverse arts with Annual Recital and newly created Dance Drama Performance series. Currently, Iny Asian Dance Theater has 13 different levels and ages groups.
Both performances are outdoor, please bring your lawn chairs to enjoy a 2-hours Asian dances you have never seen before. This unique project is sponsored by the MN State Arts Board (which that was created by a vote of the people of Minnesota on Nov., 2008); Minnesota Department of Education; Roseville Parks and Recreation; and Minneapolis Roseville Parks and Recreation. For more information, please check the website at www.inyasiandancetheater.org, or call at 612-376-7715 or e-mail info@inyasiandancetheater.org
“In an effort to get people and places to choose healthier beverages, the Minneapolis Health eDepartment has launched the reTHINK campaign. The new campaign aims to help people to understand how beverages make up a significant part of their diet, and what people drink can either positively or negatively impact their mind and body. Experts have identified sugary drinks as the single largest contributor of calories and added sugars to the U.S. diet.” – http://www.cdc.gov/
Sweeteners that add calories to a beverage go by many different names and are not always obvious to anyone looking at the ingredients list. Some common caloric sweeteners are listed below. If these appear in the ingredients list of your favorite beverage, you are drinking a sugar-sweetened beverage.
Here are some tips to find what is in your drinks:
Facts & info belong to http://www.cdc.gov/.
Photo credit: www.deardoctor.com
Anorexia and bulimia are among some of the most common type of eating disorder. Factors are often associated with or can cause eating disorders are low-self esteem, bullying, distorted body images, food phobias, social or/and peer pressure, and more. Eating disorders are treated in combinations of doctors, therapists, consultants, and nutritionists. Also, the support of family and friends are crucial to helping someone overcome their eating disorder.
What is anorexia? It is a eating disorder where the individual does not want to eat food or not enough to keep their body weight. They often think of themselves as overweight and see themselves to not be thin enough. This can be accompanied by excessive exercising or starvation. People with anorexia are usually very underweight.
What is bulimia? It is a eating disorder where people binge eat and then either throw up the food or do extreme amount of exercises to burn the large amount of calories. People will binge eat and purge on a regular basis, which can cause serious health issues. Bulimia can cause people to develop compulsive behaviors and damage their teeth and esophagus along the way due to stomach acid. People with bulimia are usually at their body weight or overweight.
So what can you to help yourself if you are experiencing a eating disorder or someone with it?
One of the easiest and effective way to stay active is to walk. Going on daily walks or walking more often can help your body stay healthy. Oppose to not walking at all, even a little exercise can help you maintain an active lifestyle. Here are some health benefits to walking and ways you can walk more:
AMA Radio Talk Show – Korean
Date recorded: 2/22/2012 Wed 5:00 pm
Host: Sungho Park
Guest: InSook Jung, ChunYoung Park, KyungSoon Shin, JungHae Oh, MoonSup Kang
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Sungho (SH): Introduced self, REACH program, and Asia Media Access
InSook (IS): Introduced self – She has lived in Minnesota for 36 years and been retired.
ChunYoung (CY): Introduced self – He immigrated to Minnesota in 1936.
KyungSoon (KS): Introduced self – She has lived in Minnesota for 30 years.
JungHae (JH): Introduced self – She has lived in Minnesota for 30 years. She is a restaurant owner in downtown in Minneapolis.
MoonSup (MS): Introduced self – He has lived in the U.S for 36 years and been retired.
SH: Introduced today three questions – 1. What are the three most important factors for a healthy Korean community in Minnesota? 2. What are the three most important health issues in a Korean community in Minnesota? 3. What are the three most risky behaviors against a healthy Korean community in Minnesota?
SH: What are the three most important factors for a healthy Korean community in Minnesota?
IS: Strong family relationship, healthy life style, and religious or spiritual values are the three most important factors. Strong family relationship can improve our community in many ways like low crime rate, child education, safe neighborhoods, etc. Keeping healthy life style will be helpful for our community to become healthy. Religious values are the most important one.
SH: I agree with that strong family relationship is one of the three most important factors. When one’s home is happy, all goes well.
CY: Overall atmosphere in Minnesota is very active. Because of cold weather, Caucasian is majority in the population. There are many professional jobs in Minnesota. Many Koreans in Minnesota have professional jobs. Also, high education standard is one of characteristics of Minnesota. A good educational environment is the most important factor, too.
KS: I agree with Mrs. Jung’s opinion. Strong family relationship is important. Religious belief supports for our healthy life. Korean church is supporting immigrants to be adapted to the U.S. Healthy life style will be built in a way volunteering to community and caring other neighborhoods by a religious belief.
MS: The most important thing is to understand a culture of America and social system. Since there are many difference between the cultures in Korea and America, understanding them will be very helpful for us to be adapted in the U.S. Also, solving language problem will help since it is much effective way to understand the America culture by learning the language.
SH: We can think religious belief, strong family relationship, and understanding America culture are the three most important factors for a healthy Korean community in Minnesota.
SH: Are you satisfied with the health care system in Korean community?
SH: Student insurance does not cover many common health problems like dental problems.
JH: Costs of a private health insurance are high. Some of Koreans are still working to pay their health insurance. We have a private health insurance before 65 years. We need to have a solution for this.
BREAK
SH: Welcome back to our discussion. We start at the second question. What are the three most health issues in a Korean community in Minnesota?
MS: Many Koreans usually do not exercise. This life style will cause high blood pressure and cardiac disorders.
SH: I think regular exercise is very important. When I regularly exercised, I felt less fatigue.
CY: Because of cold weather in Minnesota, there are many winner sport events. However, many Koreans do not participate.
IS: There are many fitness centers in Minnesota. Our environmental conditions for exercise are good. Therefore, their will of exercise is important.
SH: The health issue that is the most important in the Korean community was health problem caused by lack of exercise.
SH: What detail efforts do you think that can improve community health?
IS: We can make an exercise group or regular meeting. Every one encourages each other. Also, if there is someone who can lead the exercise group or meeting, it will be better.
SH: I heard annually there is a Korea shorts event in Minnesota. It is a great way to encourage people to exercise.
MS: However, only few people participate in the event. Many people do not participate. This is a problem. Although we make many sports events, only few people will participate. We need more participation. I think generally Koreans do not tend to participate in public events. To encourage people to participate, we need to make our events more interesting and well-prepared.
SH: We can think health problems associated with lack of exercise. As a solution, we can organize exercise group or make regular meetings for exercise. To encourage people to participate in the events, the agency needs to make well-prepared and interesting sports events.
BREAK
SH: We are back. Welcome back to our discussion. What are the three most risky behaviors against a healthy Korean community in Minnesota?
JH: Bad eating habits and lack of exercise are the most risky behaviors against a healthy Korean community in Minnesota. In my case, sometime I skip meals and overeat at late night since I am very busy on my business. I know exercise is important and I need to exercise, but it is difficult to afford my time for exercise. I think if we work together like in a group and encourage each other, it help improve our health.
KS: I think exercising together is a good idea. After exercising, I feel less fatigue. Our family try to eat healthy foods like fruits and vegetables.
SH: I agree with that these two behaviors are the most risky behaviors against a healthy Korean community in Minnesota. I want to add another factor. Smoking might be one of the most risky behaviors. Surprisingly many students are smoking while few seniors and middle-aged males are smoking. It is a problem since the students will be following generation in the Korean community. What efforts do we think that can reduce the smoking population?
JH: Smoking is addiction. Their will of quitting smoking is more important than social regulations. Despite of very cold weather, many heavy smokers smoke outside since they cannot smoke inside a building.
SH: I think so. In my school, there are many programs for quitting smoking. However, very few smokers participate.
IS: Also, there are some gamble problems. I was some of cases. Some people have gambling debts and some of them are in bankruptcy.
SH: How do we prevent and solve these problems? Can you educate them?
IS: We already have the program for quitting smoking and gamble problems, but they do not participate in those programs.
MS: We really need their participation. Moreover, we need to get their interest.
IS: Currently, there is no specialist for these matters. If there are enough specialists who can make more effective program, it will be really helpful. We need them.
SH: Okay, that sounds like the biggest reason is their will. Bad eating habit, lack of exercise, smoking, and gamble problems are caused by lack of their will. Also, as the solution and prevention, we think making programs for these problems with specialists in those fields.
SH: We discussed today all questions and could see that religious belief, strong family life, and understanding America culture are the three most important factors for a healthy Korean community in Minnesota. Also, the most important health issue in the community was health problems associated with lack of exercise. As a solution, we can organize exercise group or make regular meetings for exercise. To encourage people to participate in the events, the agency needs to make well-prepared and interesting sports events. From the third question, we could know bad eating habit, lack of exercise, smoking, and gamble problems can be considered as the most risky behaviors against the healthy community. Also, as the solution and prevention, we think making programs for these problems with specialists in those fields.
SH: It was great time to discuss about our current life condition. Thank you for your participation today, again.
Guests: Thank you!
