Are you aware that here in Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester, we have unusually high rates of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes? According to the Health Departments of these three counties, we are significantly above the national averages for all these diseases.

Why? And more important, what can we do about it?

According to recent County Health Department surveys, we tri-county residents have lifestyles that put us at risk for these diseases. We use more tobacco products, we are more overweight, and we have a fattier diet than the rest of the country.

In addition, many of us don't exercise enough. The surveys done so far haven't covered this yet, but many of us probably aren't eating the five servings of fruits and vegetables a day that we need to help protect us against these diseases.

All of these behaviors increase our risk of heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. The problem is, changing behavior is notoriously difficult to do. It's so difficult that basically, for a population the size of ours, (156,000 in the tri-county area,) it's never been done before.

Officials at the American Diabetes Association and the Bloomburg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins say that if we could decrease our risk factors, that we would be addressing the number one issue in healthcare today, which is prevention.

One official said that if the Tri-County area could successfully address the issue of prevention, the impact on our $1.5trillion health care system would be so great that this would be a cover-of-Time-Magazine kind of thing.

In response, a group of community leaders formed Healthy U of Delmarva, an organization devoted to encouraging residents of our area to exercise more, to smoke less, and to eat a healthier diet.

Founding members and/or coalition members of Healthy U include: the tri-county Health Departments, the Medical Society, Salisbury University, UMES, Wor-Wic, the Henson Foundation, and many of the non profit health organizations. (In the interests of disclosure, your writer was in on it from the beginning.)

Healthy U plans to influence lifestyles by providing rewards for healthy lifestyle behaviors and by giving people a consistent message about diet and exercise at work, at school, at their house of worship, and in the media. The effort will begin with a giant Kick-Off on January 25th and 26th at the Centre at Salisbury and also at Dove Pointe.

People who choose to participate will have their Body Mass Index assessed during an enrollment period from January 25th through March 31st. They'll be measured again a year later. Just for participating, they become eligible for a drawing for a brand new car with gas and insurance paid for a year.

They're eligible for the car whether they improve or not. If participants improve-and there's a good chance they will because a lot of support available to them-they become eligible for a drawing for a second car, which they get to give to whoever inspired them.

According to Executive Director Wendy McGill, participants are also eligible for monthly drawings if they do such things as join a walking club or fitness center, or if they attend health lectures, or participate in charity walks, or attend health fairs. In addition, businesses, houses of worship, schools, and municipalities are each eligible for a $5000 award for whichever has done the most to encourage their members in healthy lifestyles.

You can reach McGill at Healthy U of Delmarva, Post Office Box 3046, Salisbury, MD 28102, or you can call her afternoons at: 410 742 9202. The website, is HealthyUDelmarva.org.

Wendy McGill's Wish List

She would like you to contact her if:

. Your organization would like to enroll in Healthy U and be eligible for the prizes and other support activities that may decrease absenteeism and increase productivity.

. Your organization would like to be a Coalition Member, which means supporting the goals of Healthy U and having at least one of your associates serve on at least one of the Healthy U committees.

. Your organization can contribute prizes or gift certificates for the Monthly Drawings. (She'll make sure that you receive public recognition for this.)

. You, as an individual, would like to join the 433 volunteers who are part of this effort to help our neighbors live longer, healthier, more productive, and more satisfying lives.