“Good News Guy: Assistance League program helps 2,600 kids get school clothes - Reno Gazette” plus 1 more

Good News Guy: Assistance League program helps 2,600 kids get school clothes - Reno Gazette

Posted: 09 Jan 2011 10:49 AM PST

During the fall of 2010, the Assistance League of Reno-Sparks dressed more than 2,600 children for school.

The children, kindergarten through sixth grade, all were referred by their school counselors, assigned a dollar amount that they could spend on back-to-school clothing and were brought to local Walmart stores by their parents or relatives. Volunteers from the Assistance League helped the parents in choosing correct sizes and appropriate clothing, as well as in the check-out process.

More than 120 volunteers from the Assistance League; its auxiliary, "Charmanta"; and the "Dream Team," which consists of husbands and relatives of Assistance League members, helped serve the children and their families.

Operation School Bell is the signature national program of the Assistance League. It was started in the 1950s in Bakersfield, Calif., by a group of concerned women calling themselves the Volunteer Service Guild. In 1958, they joined the Assistance League as the 23rd chapter.

For the past 50 years, Assistance League chapters around the country have adopted this program. Assistance League of Reno-Sparks has implemented Operation School Bell since 1984. During that time, they have clothed more than 44,800 children.

Operation School Bell is funded by donations from foundations, individuals and businesses in the community.

Along with the Assistance League volunteers, counselors and school staffs give many hours to see that community children are dressed warmly and appropriately for school. The average cost to dress one child is $80.

How does Assistance League of Reno-Sparks measure the success of the Operation School Bell program? It is measured by the smiles of the children as they leave the store carrying their new school clothes, by the gratitude expressed by their parents and relatives as they assist the students in making their choices and in the satisfaction of volunteers and school staff members.

Donations to help with Operation School Bell are always welcome and can be sent to: Assistance League of Reno-Sparks, Operation School Bell; P.O. Box 7376; Reno, NV 89510-7376.

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For more information about this program, call 775-786-0355 or stop by the Assistance League Thrift Store, 1701 Vassar St. in Reno.

Drops in a bucket

The Reno Central Rotary Club and the Reno First United Methodist Youth Fellowship recently teamed up to provide more than 100 hygiene kits for the guests of the "Drop in the Bucket" food pantry.

The Rotarians donated soap, shampoo, lotion, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

As a service project, the youth group assembled the hygiene kits. For the holidays, guests at the food pantry received a hygiene kit along with a bag of groceries.

Drop in the Bucket, which is hosted by the First United Methodist Church, is so named to reflect the recognition that an individual's efforts might seem insignificant, but many drops of water will fill a bucket.

It started four years ago in partnership with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.

Since then, the pantry, which assists between 90 and 110 guests every two weeks, has provided more than 7,200 bags of food to more than 1,900 individuals and families in the Reno area.

Helping vets

Silver Sage Sams, a recreational vehicle chapter of the Good Sam Club, recently donated $1,000 to the Veterans Guest House in Reno.

Since 2004, the Silver Sage chapter has donated $5,380 to the guest house, which provides a place to stay for the spouses and family members of hospitalized veterans.

A whale of a tale

For the 16th consecutive year, the Christmas display set up by Sparks residents Steve Malaglowicz and Diana Croyle at their home on Santa Rosa Court in Sparks was a popular stop for residents out viewing Christmas lights.

This year, the aquatic-themed display featuring whales, dolphins and all sorts of other sea creatures, also was good news for the Nevada Humane Society.

"Some nights, we had cars backed up eight to 10 deep waiting to look, and others parked on the other side the street and getting out to look," Malaglowicz said. "I also want to thank all the people who left the donations for the Nevada Humane Society. We collected $371.10 and a truckload of food."

In all, the cash and pet food donations were valued at about $900. That's a lot of holiday cheer.

Guy Clifton is a senior reporter. You can call him at 775-788-6337 or e-mail gclifton@rgj.com.

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Kids can lift weights - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 08 Jan 2011 10:36 AM PST

My son is 12 years old, and he's going through a lot of changes in his life, most of which he'd rather not see published in this column. However, there is one change I have permission to relay: He's started lifting weights under my supervision.

I can already hear the protestations of physicians and parents. "Blasphemy!" they cry. "It's not safe!"

Many of them believe that weight training should wait until the end of puberty because it can cause serious, growth-stunting injury. The bestselling get-in-shape book "Body for Life" by Bill Phillips perpetuated this myth by asserting that "during puberty, the bones are stilling growing, and strenuous resistance exercise may interfere with bone growth."

But the American Academy of Pediatrics disagrees. In 2001, the physician's group released a policy statement that emphasized the safety and benefits of strength training both for adolescents and pre-adolescents to "improve sports performance, rehabilitate injuries, prevent injuries, and/or enhance long-term health."

A decade later, I'm not sure how well this message is filtering down to parents and doctors, as those who advocate child weightlifting continue to meet with resistance. Even my own wife, a family physician for 13 years, was reluctant to let me train our son. But for the first time in the history of forever, I was able to change her mind about something.

The health club business is squeamish as well. It's ironic that I can sign up my son to get pummeled into a pile of goo playing football or ice hockey, but my local gym won't let him in until he's 14. In Los Angeles, Bally's and Gold's Gym also have a minimum age of 14; 24-Hour Fitness is more progressive, allowing 12-year-olds in the weight room. All of this is with parental supervision, of course.

I understand that health clubs may not want a bunch of rugrats showing up their older clients on bench press — not to mention having well-founded concerns over liability. But parents do have some options for getting their kids to hit the iron if they want to.

Here's why they should want to.

In a prospective study that evaluated children over a one year period, less than 1% of all injuries in children in elementary through high school were the result of resistance training, according to the National Strength and Conditioning Assn. (NSCA), of which I am a member. For the sake of comparison, the same study revealed that 19% of injuries came from football and 15% from basketball during that period. What's more, "there is no evidence to suggest that resistance training will negatively impact growth and maturation," according to the NSCA.

The American College of Sports Medicine, known as ACSM, also endorses the activity in its official statement on youth strength training: "If appropriate guidelines are followed, it is the opinion of ACSM that strength training can be an enjoyable, beneficial and healthy experience for children and adolescents."

Avery Faigenbaum, a pediatric exercise scientist and professor at the College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J., agrees that weightlifting will not stunt a child's growth. He has written numerous scientific publications and books on the subject, and he's so passionate about it that he founded StrongKid.com to encourage children and teens to begin strength training under the guidance of experts.

"We've done a 180-degree turn on this myth," he told me. "We now actually encourage children to engage in strength training to increase bone, tendon and ligament strength, all of which serve to improve sports performance and reduce risk of injury."

In fact, he said, if children are old enough to participate in sports, they're old enough to lift weights. And it's safer for them to play sports if they engage in pre-season weightlifting: "Kids shouldn't go straight from the couch to the playing field, or they could get hurt."

In the program he runs in cooperation with New Jersey school systems, Faigenbaum trains boys and girls as young as 7. "We start off with just bodyweight exercises or very light weights, and kids earn the right to use heavier weights by proving they've mastered proper technique," he told me.

Faigenbaum's comments about stronger bones are backed up by research. In 1993, researchers from the University of Connecticut reported in the journal Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise that teenage boys who were elite Olympic weightlifters (that's a style of lifting — they weren't competing in the Olympics) had bone mineral density values that were 20% to 35% higher than those of age-matched controls.

And in 2001, researchers from the Institute for Women's Health at Texas Women's University reported in the Journal of Pediatrics that adolescent girls who were engaged in resistance training had higher bone density in their thighs than girls in a control group. They also increased their leg strength by 40%.

Faigenbaum insists that you don't have to worry about your second-grader turning into a mini-Schwarzenegger, as prior to puberty the majority of strength gains come from improved neuromuscular performance — a fancy way of saying better muscle coordination and activation of more muscle fibers to make the body work harder — rather than increases in muscular size.

"It isn't about looking like someone on the cover of a muscle magazine," he told me. "It's about injury prevention and improving performance. For example, we can help young football players sprint faster and basketball players jump higher."

In terms of access to weights, Faigenbaum agrees with the age restrictions of commercial gyms. "Young children should not be hanging out in adult weight rooms," he said. "Most YMCAs have strength-building programs that are specifically designed for children, and elementary and junior high schools are getting on board with using body weight and medicine ball conditioning in gym class."

In some cases, you could look at training your children at home like I am, but you have to do some serious homework first. I've been instructed in how to train children properly, and if you want to do this I advise hiring a person qualified in youth strength training to train both of you together for several hours until you achieve the necessary level of competence to instruct your child.

Also, make sure you are monitoring your child's workouts at all times. My son had the fear of Dad put into him about showing off to his friends in our basement gym. If I'm not there, he doesn't lift.

Finally, Faigenbaum recommends using dumbbells instead of barbells, since most injuries in home gyms involve barbells.

I got my son into this because he expressed interest, and I felt it could help reduce his risk of injury and improve his performance in martial arts. But I'm starting to wonder if having him lift weights is such a hot idea after all. By the time he's 16, the boy will have a black belt in karate and be stronger than most of his peers.

If he wants to borrow the car, I won't have much choice but to hand over the keys.

Fell is a certified strength and conditioning specialist in Calgary, Canada.

james@bodyforwife.com

Kids Clothing

Sunday, January 9, 2011