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The 2012 Live Healthy Iowa 100 Day Wellness Challenge is
Just Around the Corner! Organize Your Teams Today!

Live Healthy Iowa brings people together in a team-based activity and weight loss
program designed to promote a healthier lifestyle.

The program runs from January 23 through May 1, 2012, and now is the time to get your team together and take the challenge.

Organize Your Team
Registration is open until February 2, 2012, but the event starts January 23.  Teams can include two to 10 people, and participants work together to select a team name and captain. The teams then simply complete easy weekly updates of their personal dashboard and physical activity from their computers. Your individual information remains confidential. Team results are listed as a percent of weight lost rather than weight in pounds. Allen will pay the entry fee for your team members.

Program Benefits
Each participant will receive:

• Training T-shirt
• One-year magazine subscription to one of 10 titles
• Weekly motivational email tips and recipes
• Free entry into the Winter and Summer Games Fitness Walks
• Unlimited access to the new Live Healthy Iowa website, including updated personal tracking, goal-setting, healthy recipes, workouts, health information, tools and resources
• Unlimited access to your personal dashboard which includes an online daily journal to help you track your weight loss or physical activity, an online messaging center that will allow you to communicate with your teammates to support each other in your progress, and gives you the ability to see your team's ranking on the leaderboard
• Live Healthy Iowa Access Card redeemable for deals across the state
• Chance to win monthly team incentives and/or individual prizes, such as bikes, iPods or a Four-night Tropical Cruise for Two!

*Winners selected from all participants who record progress each week of the program. Incentives are awarded each month, at the 50-day point and at program end. 

We will update you with registration information by early next week.  Get your teams together and designate a captain so you’ll be ready to enter the 100 Day Wellness Challenge.

Questions, please contact Jim Waterbury at waterbjb@ihs.org.

People often wonder how our ticket offers work for shows at Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. Here’s the story.

We sponsor Allen Hospital’s Kaleidoscope, the educational program that brings 40,000 school kids to GBPAC every year. As part of our sponsorship, we receive tickets for 15 - 20 performances each year. We offer the tickets to you in monthly drawings.

We used to send registration notices out via AllenAll, asking you to respond by email. That generated stacks of printed replies that were hard to sort and save. So in 2011, we switched to online registration through Survey Monkey notices we email monthly from September – April. It’s a faster, greener way to work.

After I run one printout of all entries, one or more people in the Foundation office give me random numbers that link to the number of requests. Then I match their random numbers to the corresponding entries. If your number comes up and you haven’t won yet this season, the tickets are yours. We always pull alternate winners, and sometimes we need them.

We get 150 – 200 entries for most shows. Hot offers like Mannheim Steamroller bring in 400 entries. Since we usually have only two pairs of tickets per show, your chance of winning any given drawing are somewhere between 1 in 75 and 1 in 200. That’s no slam dunk, but it’s far better than the lottery, and you don’t have to pay to win.

Here’s what we want to share. Allen associates do win, every time. We hope you’ll keep trying, because we offer great seats, and you really owe it to yourself to go to GBPAC when you can. The February ticket offer will be coming out the week of January 23. We would love to add your name to this list of people who have won tickets so far this season.

My heartfelt thank you to all my Allen family who gave such support to me and my children during the resent loss of my husband, Paul.  During this most difficult time, the caring and compassion of staff, physicians and friends was extremely appreciated and there are no words to express our gratitude. 

A special thank you to Chris in ICU, Doreen in Clinical Services and Pam in Administration; we are so grateful for your thoughtfulness, caring and concern and it will always be remembered. - Sheila Dolan

Whether We Should Talk About the Weather?

Exactly six months ago I was talking to Pam Reiter about the heat that day. Pam and I put an appointment on our Outlook calendars to talk to each other about the weather exactly six months from that day last summer. Below are the two weather reports…

Waterloo, January 12, 2012
• Temperature: 11
• Humidity: 84%
• Wind: NW @ 24 mph, gusting to 31 mph
• Sky: Light Snow

Strong winds will continue to blow snow. Additional snow fall will continue to add up, generally 1-4" of snow will fall. Northwest winds of 20-25 mph gusting even higher will cause blowing, some drifting and reduced visibilities today.  Highs will only be a couple of degrees warmer than morning lows and wind chills will run in the negative numbers most of the day. Tonight the lows will drop into the single digits but wind chills stay well below zero. 

Waterloo, July 19, 2011
• Temperature: 100
• Humidity: 77%.
• Wind: 0-5 mph
• Sky: Clear, not a cloud

The heat index makes it feel like 115 degrees. 

Let's thank the weather, nine out of ten of people start conversations with you regarding the weather!
-Matt Rolinger

Allen Hospital Milk Collection Depot for
the Mother's Milk Bank of Iowa

Allen Hospital Lactation Services Office
3rd Floor, 1825 Logan Avenue, Waterloo, IA

Donations accepted by lactation services staff on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm.  To drop off donations other days/times,  for more information or to check freezer space, call 235-3620.

By making the decision to donate breast milk, you can have a great impact on the lives of infants and their families. Donating breast milk is an easy process that can drastically improve the life of a baby.

Back to Basics
Good Old Common Sense Thoughts
by Nancy Friedman (Shared by Marty Colwell)

To start the year off, I wanted to get back to basics. Things you all probably know, but may have forgotten. Certainly I've noticed that many of the things we think are common sense and basic are clearly not. They're usually simple, little things. See if these don't get you thinking:

1. "Please" and "thank you" always have been, and always will be, powerful words. Seldom overused.

2. "You're welcome" is the best replacement for "no problem."

3. "Sorry 'bout that" is not an apology. It's a cliché. "My apologies" is much better.

4. A frown is a smile upside down. Stand on your head if you must; but SMILE, darn it!

5. You cannot do two things well at once. Pay attention to the call or the patient/customer.

6. One word answers on email or in person are considered cold and rude. Three words make a sentence.

7. Learn what phrases frustrate your patients/customer. They're probably the same ones that bother you.

8. When was the last time you sent flowers to someone just because?

9. Drop a personal handwritten note to a someone and just say "thanks" for what they did for you.

10."Hey how 'ya doing?" is not a great way to start up a conversation.

11. Out with friends or family? Put the cell phone away. Talk for 30 minutes. (If you remember how.)

12. Email manners? The same as phone and in person.

13. The old "don't tell 'em what you can't do; tell 'em what you can do" applies to most, if not all, interactions.

14. Get excited!

15. Oh, and smile. That needed to be said twice.