HEALTH CHAMPION RECOGNIZED

 The new sports kid-on-the-block, Ultimate Frisbee, has a new home.  The Hernando Parks Department is providing a place for this relatively new sport in DeSoto County.   “We are very appreciative of Hernando Parks Department providing a place for us to play on Monday nights.  It is a challenge to find a field with the lights for athletic groups not affiliated with an official sports league.  As a professional in the field of health promotion, I recognize the importance of providing the community with various opportunities to be active and the positive impact on health and quality of life.  Hernando is leading the way in facilitating active lifestyles in DeSoto County.”   (Dr. Heather Chambliss, DeSoto County Community Health Council Member and Ultimate Frisbee player) 

What is Ultimate Frisbee?   Combining the non-stop movement and athletic endurance of soccer with the aerial passing skills of football, a game of Ultimate is played by two seven-player squads with a high-tech plastic disc on a field similar to football. The object of the game is to score by catching a pass in the opponent’s end zone. A player must stop running while in possession of the disc, but may pivot and pass to any of the other receivers on the field.  Ultimate is a transition game in which players move quickly from offense to defense on turnovers that occur with a dropped pass, an interception, a pass out of bounds, or when a player is caught holding the disc for more than ten seconds. Ultimate is governed by Spirit of the Game™, a tradition of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the players rather than referees. Ultimate is played in more than 42 countries by hundreds of thousands of men and women, girls and boys.”  http://www.upa.org/ultimate 

The DeSoto County Community Health Council was established in 2006 through the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi’s GET A LIFE! initiative to promote healthy lifestyles among our children.   “The Council is representative of the entire county and we serve as a resource to our schools, businesses, churches and organizations interested in obesity prevention and healthy lifestyles.”.  (Peggy Linton, Chair of the DeSoto County Community Health Council)  “Hernando has made great strides in providing safe places for children to play and offering opportunities for sports.  For this reason, the Council members wanted to recognize the Hernando Parks Department as the December Health Champion”.  Each month the DeSoto County Community Health Council will choose a Health Champion.  If you know of an individual, group, church, school, business, etc. that deserves to be recognized as a Health Champion, please send a short explanation to Peggy Linton (plinton@cfnm.org) or to Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, 321 Losher St., Hernando, MS  38632.

 

 

Pictured from left to right: Judy Belue, Laurie Johnson, Mayor Chip Johnson, Peggy Linton, Hernando parks Director Dwayne Williams, Dr. Heather Chambliss and Dr. Julio Arancibia.