Lots of exciting things are going on in Pulaski County. You can be a part of the excitement by getting out and enjoying the fellowship with your friends and neighbors.

You can lose weight on your own or you can join the Weight the Reality Series each Wednesday at 4:30 at the Extension Office. The weigh-in begins at 4:30, 5 p.m. for the educational part and 5:30 for the exercise. It’s a time to fellowship, lose weight, and have fun, so join in with us.

This program will continue through Oct. 22.

OSHER has their new class listings available at the Extension Office. You can sign up for a variety of classes including gardening, theatre production, Civil War in Pulaski County, contemporary art, beginning watercolor, stained glass, and health and wellness classes.

There is a $10 registration fee that allows you to sign up for all of the classes. Some classes have an additional fee for supplies, etc., such as contemporary art, beginning watercolor, and health and wellness.

The beginning watercolor class if full, but you can get on the waiting list. The Health and Wellness class includes money for the luncheon on Dec. 10.

You do not have to commit to attend every class, so check in and see all the different classes that are being offered in Pulaski County. This is such a great opportunity for adults 50 years of age and older can participate in. Come by the Extension Office and pick up your list of classes and your registration packets. These are also available at other sites in the county.

The Pulaski County Homemakers began their new year in August. If you would like to be a homemaker member, dues are $10 a year and can be paid at the office. All dues must be paid by Nov. 14.

If you don’t have time to be an active member of a club, then join the mailbox members club. Mailbox members receive all of their information by mail. Dues are the same for active or mailbox membership. Clubs meet during the day, at night, and every day of the week. Call the Extension Office at 679-6361 for more information, or talk to your neighbor or co-worker. She may be a Pulaski County Extension Homemaker.

If you would like to organize a club in your neighborhood or community, just call the Extension Office.

Knitters are busy again making baby bonnets for the hospital and doing their own projects. The knitters meet each Thursday at 1 o’clock at the Extension Demonstration House.

The Material Girls Quilting Club is busy making hats and pillows for cancer patients. The Quilting Club meets on the second Thursday at 6 p.m. in the basement of the Extension Office.

The Gourmet Gals Cooking Club meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the Extension Office. These are specialty clubs of Extension and dues are the same. You pay dues one time, no matter how many clubs you may belong too.

Now let’s talk about Second Sunday. It’s time to take Kentucky’s health problems seriously, according to experts in University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences, and they’ve come up with a big plan to bring attention to the subject.

Second Sunday, a state-wide event designed to get Kentuckians on their feet and moving, is planned for Oct. 12. Organized by specialists and agents in the family and consumer sciences arm of the UK Co-operative Extension Service, the idea is to work with local officials to close a road or roads in each county for a few hours on the second Sunday in October. This will allow people to get out and exercise in a fun, safe, community-friendly environment.

In Pulaski County’s Second Sunday will be in downtown Somerset from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12. Several streets downtown will be blocked for people to walk, run, ride bicycles, skate boards, roller skates, or whatever your favorite exercise is.

The city police will be on hand to control the streets. Maple Street, East Mt. Vernon Street, and those streets in that area will be blocked off for you to enjoying walking with your neighbor, friends, mate, children or alone.

You can park at the library, or other parking lots in that area. However, you can park at the city schools and walk and get in more exercise.

Please join us for this great day.

Why should you be out doing exercise?

Janet Kurzynske, chair of the Nutrition and Food Science Department in the School of Human Environmental Sciences, is an expert in the area of obesity. She said the problem of obesity affects Kentuckians across the board, presenting one of the most important health challenges of our time.

“Two-thirds of us are overweight or obese. It’s our children, and it’s our adults. It doesn’t matter what race a person is. Poverty doesn’t make a difference; the rich are just as overweight as the poor,” she said.

Kentucky is consistently ranked among the top 10 states for obesity and obesity-related diseases, such as diabetes and cardio-vascular disease. These health-related problems are some of those that UK President Lee T. Todd Jr. has labeled as the Kentucky Uglies – problems that the university is uniquely positioned to overcome.

“This event is a great example of how Kentucky’s flagship university is working to solve some of Kentucky’s most pressing problems,” Todd said. “And, as usual, the event is led by the university’s most trusted ambassadors, our Co-operative Extension Service. UK Extension agents have been connecting our classrooms and laboratories to Kentucky communities for years, and I am glad they remain committed to helping us make the Commonwealth a healthier place for all of our citizens.”

Family and consumer sciences specialists and agents have already made an impact in the state through their ongoing nutrition programs, but Kurzynske thinks the solution goes beyond watching what’s on our plates. It’s her belief that communities must seriously consider the effects the built environment is having on their citizens and on their activities and eating habits.

The National Institutes of Health include within the term “built environment” homes, schools, workplaces, parks and recreation areas, green-ways, business areas and transportation systems.

Focusing on how people access services and move around between home, school, work and play can have a real impact on the energy people expend. And expending physical energy promotes good health.

“People in cities get more exercise than people in suburbs and rural areas because they don’t get their car out, if they even have a car,” Kurzynske said. “It’s too much trouble. It’s much easier to walk.”

With Second Sunday, family and consumer sciences Extension personnel are hoping to encourage local counties and communities to re-examine their built environment to make it easier for people to get out of their homes and exercise.

This could mean providing bike lanes on local roads, having stores within walking distances, or going so far as to build trails for pedestrians and cyclists.

“I think most local officials know that in their communities there is not a lot of access to inexpensive physical activity endeavors. And in every community they know their health is so dismal. And this is a way to jumpstart it,” Kurzynske said.

At a recent built environment conference, organizers gave participants ideas about funding sources to improve the built environment, as well as inexpensive ideas about using existing infrastructure, such as mall walking. Kurzynske said that by making a map showing the number of steps or miles or calories burned, a community could provide the motivation to exercise without the outlay of much money.

Clark County has provided a walking trail for its residents simply by mowing a path through farmland to which they’ve been given access.

“This doesn’t have to be a multimillion dollar endeavor,” she said. “It can be as simple as mowing a path.”

The idea for Second Sunday came about from a conversation between Kurzynske and Lexington Fayette Urban County Councilman Jay McChord. She and the family and consumer sciences planning committee are working closely with McChord and Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry to create an event that will not only raise awareness throughout the state, but also lead the way for the rest of the country.

“There is no better time than the present to bring about change. We can’t wait,” she said. “Kentucky is serious. We want to change our circumstances.”

For information about Second Sunday in Pulaski County, contact the Extension office at 679-6361.