Madelia 'losers' get more rewards

Madelia residents still charting weight weekly

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

MADELIA -- The accolades and media attention continue to pour in to the Madelia Community Hospital program that challenged residents to lose a ton of weight during a 10-week period earlier this year.

Nearly 250 people -- 10 percent of the town's residents -- and one dog, "Butch," the cookie-loving Charpei-black lab mix, lost more than 2,340 pounds in the "Fight the Fat" program. The program recently received the 2003 Rural Health Team Award at the Minnesota Rural Health Conference in St. Cloud.

The award went to the entire community and a group of dedicated people that planned and provided leadership for it. Madelia Hospital Patient Billing Coordinator Deb Grote originated the program. She got lots of help from Donna Klinkner, Candace Fenske, Bev Dahl, Denise Osburn, Deidre Hruby, Jodi Ulmen, and Laura Meyer.

Award winners were selected for their "compassion, efficiency, coordination, collaboration, unselfishness, quality and leadership," according to Estelle Brouwer, director of the Minnesota Department of Health Office of Rural Health and Primary Care.

Grote became inspired about the weight loss idea last Thanksgiving. After eating a large dinner, she was lying on the couch resting and watching television.

She noticed a program about the residents of Dyersville, Iowa (that's right, the small town where the baseball Field of Dreams is located), together, lost hundreds of pounds. Deb spoke to friends and hospital co-workers about starting such a program in Madelia.

For an enrollment fee of ten dollars, fat fighters attended weekly Sunday night meetings with individual weigh-ins, health screening services, speakers on nutrition, physical fitness and motivation. Team cheers, songs, free nutritional food and awards were part of the evening fare.

Other nuts and bolts of the program included yoga, heart-healthy menus, fats and massage therapy. Fast-food giant McDonald's even pitched in with free salads and fruit parfaits even though there are no Golden Arches in town. Weight gains or losses were charted each week.

La Salle Farmers Grain pledged to fund the program 10 cents for each pound of weight lost. The Triangle Cafe added vegetarian vegetable soup and sandwiches with Healthy Choice turkey and chicken to the menu.

The program emphasized a team approach to losing weight. Thirty team names included the Big Fat Losers (losing an average of 23.7 pounds per person). The Loyal Lutheran Losers were second at 17.9 pounds per person, followed by the Six-Pack Lights (15.5 pounds). Other team names included the Jelly Bellies, Chubby Checkers, Plump Parishioners, Dixie Chunks, and the Whopping Weight Warriors.

Randy Gustafson took the mens individual title, losing 56 pounds. Top woman loser was Lise Gappa (29.5 pounds).

"Dieting isn't always fun, so you have to make it fun," Grote said. "This looked like fun so I thought we'd try it."

Doug Fenske said he had to punch new holes in his belt to accommodate for the 18 pounds he lost in two and one-half months.

James Wolf, chief executive officer at District One Hospital in Faribault, heard about Madelia and got an idea. He convinced his hospital to hold its own 10-week campaign and challenge Madelia.

The city with the greatest percentage of people that lost six pounds in six weeks would win. Faribault's program had 335 participants and relied on individual newsletters.

Madelia won out in the end as 68 percent of its participants lost at least six pounds in six weeks. Faribault had a 55 percent success rate.

The Madelia group continues to hold weekly weigh-ins at the public school.

Darrell Smith of Grand Marais received the 2003 Rural Health Hero Award for his dedication to residents of Cook County. He's been an Emergency Medical Technician for more than 29 years and is now the Cook County Ambulance Service director. For more than 20 years, he has been a CPR instructor and EMT/FR instructor at Hibbing Community College.

Smith has been a leader in providing instruction and mentoring for many EMTs in the Cook County Area. He was instrumental in obtaining a grant to implement a pilot EMT training program for 11th and 12th grade students. The program encourages young people to become involved in area First Responder programs.