MHS receives $10,000 Pathways to Healthy Kansas grant

Pictured from leftt: Dana Eye, City of Solomon Clerk; Sharon Roberts-Meyer, Marketing Director for Enterprise Estates; Pat Brehm, Community Project Coordinator for Quality of Life Coalition; Kim Stivers, MHS Director of Community Affairs; Harold Courtois, MHS Chief Executive Officer; Vicki Gieber, Executive Director for Quality of Life Coalition; John Barker, KS Representative, 70th District; Brenda Weaver, Deputy Director of Health – Dickinson County Health Department; Elgin Glanzer, MHS Chief Financial Officer; Renae Riedy, KSU Extension Agent DK CO; Veronica Murray, Administrative Assistant for DK CO Economic Development; Andrea Taylor, MHS Chief Human Resource Officer. *Photos courtesy MHS*

ABILENE — Memorial Health System (MHS) in Abilene has received a Pathways to Healthy Kansas Implementation Grant in the amount of $10,000 to purchase water bottle filling stations in each of its facilities.

MHS has implemented policies to enhance employee health and fitness and to discourage tobacco use, and would like to encourage employees and visitors to make the healthy choice of drinking more water.

MHS will install water bottle filling stations in Memorial Hospital, Impact Sports & Fitness, Learn & Grow Depot, Village Manor, Frontier Estates, and Home Health and Hospice. This project is being funded with the Pathways Implementation Grant.

“We are very excited to receive this Pathways grant,” MHS Chief Executive Officer, Harold Courtois said. “Memorial Health System employees, patients, guests, Village Manor residents and visitors, Impact Sports and Fitness members, Frontier Estates residents, and Learn and Grow Depot families will all benefit from the bottle filling stations. It is wonderful to see our community work together with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas to create a healthier community.”

Memorial Health System provides services to Abilene and the surrounding area. MHS’s Mission is to “Enhance the health and wellness of all,” and their Vision is to “Be the health care provider and employer of choice.”

The Quality of Life Coalition, Inc., serves as a catalyst to promote social, physical, and mental well-being for the residents of Dickinson County, placing an emphasis on the reduction of youth substance use, and to foster a thriving environment in which to live, work, play, and learn.

Dickinson County is one of 16 Kansas communities selected to participate in the Pathways to a Healthy Kansas program, which is the largest community grant program ever funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. The Quality of Life Coalition has received a $100,000 coordination grant; Dickinson County schools, worksites, restaurants, food retail outlets, and other organizations have the opportunity to apply for non-competitive implementation and achievements grants amounting to $400,000 through 2020.

The Pathways program provides community coalitions, like the Quality of Life Coalition, with the tools and resources needed to remove barriers and engage their communities in ways that enable healthy eating, and tobacco-free, active living to become a way of life. Funded communities work in several sectors in order to build and sustain healthy environments for their residents, including community policy, resident/community well-being, food retail, health care providers, restaurants, schools, and worksites.