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June Meeting Minutes

Date: Tuesday, June 11th, 2024
Start Time: 10:10AM
Stop Time: 10:59AM
Attendance:
  • Sierra Winter

  • Amanda Simpson

  • Joshua Gilmore

  • Abigail Vanwormer

  • Matt Reppel

  • Crickett Stankowitz

  • Bridgett Cassidy

  • Brenda McCain

  • Layla Micheli

  • Jennifer Lockhart

  • Amy Gorn

  • Dana Norwood

  • Linda Oxley

  • Ronni Spaulding

Minutes:

Sierra Winter, Northern Valley Health Coalition (NVHC) board chair, calls the meeting to order at 10:10AM and suggests new members to introduce themselves to the group. Dana Norwood with the State of Alaska Medicare Information Office introduces herself as the care coordinator.


Chronic Disease presentation:

Ashley Minaei with the Alaska Division of Public Health presents on men’s health and cardiovascular health. She opens up the presentation and introduces the group to the Fresh Start program and explains that importance of cardiovascular health and men’s health. Ashley introduces her section, team, and partners and collaborators at the community and state levels. She starts her presentation stating that chronic diseases are all inner related.


The presentation includes statistics about chronic disease in Alaska; three out of every four Alaskan adults have at least one underlying health condition, two out of three of Alaska Adults are overweight or obese, and one out of three of Alaskans have high blood pressure. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men. She shares cardiovascular and men’s health information and shares some videos of real time patients improving their chronic health conditions through the Chronic Disease Prevention Health Promotion with the State of Alaska (SOA) and Alaska Division of Public Health. Ashley opens the floor for questions from the group.


Brenda McCain shares a story of how someone she knew had utilized the Tobacco Quit Line to get help to stop smoking. She commented that the experience her friend had with the resource significantly improved her relapses and withdrawals.


Men's Cardiovascular Health and Alaska's Fresh Start Program presentation link: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:6c5c0ed5-b2fe-459c-bef4-8dc8243ab749

 

Sierra, NVHC board chair, states the NVHC board is looking for a board secretary. Ronni Spaulding has moved into the Vice President position to open the secretary position up so that a new member would have a little less task. Sierra shares that Sunshine Community Health Center (SCHC) is still hosting monthly health incentive clinics. Joshua shares that Moby 2 is on the way and that it will arrive June 19th. Moby 2 is wrapped with beautiful SCHC marketing decals and will be a part of the 4th of July parade in Talkeetna. There is also a trailer that is wrapped with SCHC marketing decals, and it will be in the Willow fourth of July parade for those that would like to join SCHC in the march.

Joshua explains that SCHC is working their way to expanding the Willow Clinic but with inflation, it now costs 11 million dollars and so far, only 1 million for the expansion was received. He discusses the constructive efforts made to SCHC’s campus’s:

-          Next Spring/Summer Moby 2 garage will be put up. Backlog on steel and materials delay construction for a year.

-          Fourplex for Professional Rural Housing completion is expected to be by the end of next Summer.

-          Land clearing to prepare for the upcoming projects, housing, and ensure fire safety precautions are taken in accordance with state laws.

-          Daycare expansion is funded by the Mat SU Health Foundation and expected to start their processes soon.

-          Putting in community gardens in this summer to grow some additional produce in collaboration with the Upper Susitna Food Pantry.


Brenda McCain shares that there were 33 plus vendors at the Safety Expo in Willow, she thanks Sunshine Clinic for their involvement in the event. She states that CERT will be having a borough traffic and crowd management training at the Fire station in Wasilla. CERT had to skip, “Stop the Bleed Month” in May and post pone it to August because SOA can provide more learning materials such as dummies to practice on. July 12th will be community safety day at Willow Farmer’s Market, please contact Tiffany who is the coordinator for the farmer’s market. Every other year, the CERT basic class is required for joining the CERT team, but anyone can take the class to learn about basic skills check in. Red Cross volunteers are needed, people in the northern valley specifically are needed.


Linda Oxley shares that there is a bike repair shop in Anchorage called, “Off the Chain” that hosts classes for bike repairs and maintenance and accepts old bike donations so they can refurbish the bike and sell it for an affordable cost to someone in need or looking for an affordable recycled bike.


Upcoming Events

Kids day camp – June 17th-19th 

5K Mud Run Fundraiser – July 6th 

Kids Day Camp – July 15th 

Fireweed Festival in Trapper Creek- July 20th 

Summer Fest- July 27th 

SCHC Community Celebration- August 10th


Northern Valley Health Coalition (NVHC) Updates

·        The NVHC Board of Directors needs a secretary, please contact board president, Sierra Smith, to apply.


NVHC Meeting Schedule

·        July || Alaska Dementia Action Collaboration PENDING

·        August || Denali Education Center

·        September || Links Resource Center

·        October || EMPTY SPOT

·        November || EMPTY SPOT

·        December || Nutrition with Duronda Twigg, CNO, RN, SCHC


Sunshine (SCHC) Updates

·        Mobile Unit || On the way!

·        Offsite Vaccine Clinics || Ideas to collaborate?

·        Community Celebration || Planning & Outreach starting


Community Celebration (SCHC)

·        Looking to combine Back to School Efforts.

·        August 10th - save the date!


Community Events June - July

·        June 27th Links Resource Fair

·        July 4th Northern Valley Community Events/Parades

·        July 9th & 10th Memory & Dementia Clinic at SCHC

·        July 20th Fireweed Festival in Trapper Creek


Next Meeting Planning:

Date: Tuesday, July 9th, 2024

Time: 10:00 AM

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