We Can!™ in the West: Program Staff to Speak at Montana Health Care Summit

July 18, 2009

Montana’s Senior U.S. Senator—Max Baucus (D-MT)—recently invited We Can! coordinator Karen Donato, S.M., to present the program at his “Make Health Happen: Promoting Wellness and Prevention in Rural Communities” summit in Bozeman, August 9-10.

We Can! has nine community sites in the nation’s fourth largest state. Donato will touch upon their successes as she participates on a panel that will discuss ways that schools can be wellness leaders in rural communities by engaging entire communities, as well as encouraging their own employees, to adopt healthy lifestyles.

Other panel discussions will touch on topics ranging from how an investment in wellness can become not only a community asset but also an economic development opportunity, to cultivating so-called wellness champions for healthy living initiatives in the community, workplace, and schools,

Conference keynote speakers will include Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, CEO of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; Sally Jewell, CEO of REI, Inc.; and Neil Nicoll, CEO of YMCA USA.

This is a great opportunity for expanded discussions on the need for programs like We Can! that are helping families and communities prevent overweight in children. Senator Baucus is the U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman and recently met with President Obama and members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to discuss health care reform.

Be sure to look for a follow-up story on the conference in our next eNewsletter.