The Curry County Wellness Council and the City of Clovis Quality of Life Committee need your help! Please take a few minutes to participate in a brief survey focusing on activities for youth of all ages in our community. This is a valuable tool for us to help assess our community’s needs, plus gives you an opportunity to share your opinion with those who will listen.

The survey, which will only take 5 to 10 minutes of your time, is geared towards parents’ in our community with children. If you do not have children, we would still ask that you participate. Click here to access the Youth Activity Survey.

The City of Clovis, along with Curry County, will be having a blood drive on March 19, 2010 from 9:00 am until 2:45 pm at the Curry County Courthouse. Interested parties should download and read the Fast Track form, which has valuable information for potential donors.

United Blood Services: Blood Donation on the Fast Track [1.9 MB PDF]

For more information, please contact Stephanie Pointer, donor recruitment representative for United Blood Services, by calling (806) 797-6804, ext. 2418.

Congrats to Dalton Banister, our StayTeen video contest winner! Daltonis 17 years old and is home schooled in Portales. He is very involved in our community. Check out his video to get a sense of his involvement! Enjoy the extra spending money this holiday season! We’ve posted Dalton’s winning entry below.

We would like to thank all of our participants for your hard work and creativity in helping us with this contest. Judging was more difficult thanks to all of your wonderful submissions.

Waiting List for New Employer Group Enrollees Begins Saturday, December 19, 2009

Santa Fe, New Mexico – The New Mexico Human Services Department will begin a waiting list for new employer groups who are interested in enrolling their employees in the State Coverage Insurance (SCI) Program, beginning Saturday, December 19, 2009.  All group applications submitted to the Human Services Department’s Insure New Mexico!SolutionsCenterby Friday, December 18, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. will be processed for eligibility.  Employer groups currently participating in the SCI program will be allowed to continue to submit new applicants for enrollment without waiting list limitations at this time.

“There are currently more than 50,000 New Mexico adults participating in the SCI Program, who previously had no health coverage,” said KathrynFalls, Human Services Department Secretary-designate.  “Funding for the SCI program is at capacity which is why this waiting list is necessary at this time.”

This waiting list is a cost-containment measure the department has begun for the Medicaid and other health coverage programs due to a projected shortfall in the current and upcoming budget years.  In November the department began a waiting list for individual applicants to the SCI program.  The new group waiting list will be a separate waiting list from the individual waiting list.

The SCI program was implemented as part of Governor Richardson’s Insure New Mexico! Solutions in July 2005, designed to cover low-income, uninsured, working adults (ages 19-64) in a primarily employer based model with cost-sharing on a sliding-scale based on income.

There are approximately 1,500 lives in small employer groups that are participating in the SCI program, with the average employer group size of just over nine employees per group.  The majority of industrial categories are food service, hospitality, retail, health care and education services.

Eligibility for the SCI program is based on household incomes below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.  For example an individual with an annual income of $21,660 or a family of two with an annual income of $29,148 would likely qualify.

People interested in applying and getting on the waiting list for the SCI program can receive an application by either calling the Insure New Mexico!SolutionsCenterat 1-888-997-2583 or visiting the Insure New Mexico! website.

We would like to apologize for a typo in the initial post about the Council’s StayTeen video contest. We initially posted that the winner would be selected and announced on December 15. This was incorrect.

The winner will be announced on Friday, December 18 at 10:00 am at the Bank of Clovis, and will be highlighted here on the website soon after. Come join us at 300 Main Street in Clovis on Friday morning!

H1N1 flu vaccine will be given free of charge on Thursday, December 3rd from 9 am to 1pm at the Clovis Civic Center, 801 Schepps Blvd. The vaccine is for the following groups only:

• Any child who is 6 months of age to age 5
• Anyone ages 6-64 with a chronic disease such as asthma, diabetes, lupus, cancer, etc.
• Pregnant women
• Parents of infants less than 6 months of age

If you have any questions, please contact Gayla Jaquess, Nurse Manager at the Clovis Health Office, 575-763-5583 ext. 6316. Thank you.

One lucky Curry Co. teen could win a $1,000 cash prize!

In conjunction with the national Stay Teen Organization video upload program, the Curry County Wellness Council is sponsoring a local “How Do YOU Stay Teen” video contest.  The national Stay Teen Organization has a website where teens can upload their own videos, taken from a cell phone or video camera, that describe what “Stay Teen” means to them.

Locally, the Curry County Wellness Council is using this successful approach by sponsoring a video contest within the county. Teens will be able to make their own 30 second video/public service announcement using their cell phones or camera. These videos will feature what they do to Stay Teen, whether that be motocross to cheerleading to playing in a band, or whatever!  Most importantly, they are activities that you do when you don’t have the responsibilities of raising a baby.  All videos will be shown online and one talented teen will be chosen to win $1000 in December.

Just take some video and edit it (or not) as you see fit.  The ending audio should be something like:  “Here’s life without adult responsibilities – remember Just Stay Teen.”

Entries must be submitted no later than midnight on Monday, November 30th. Judging will commence on December 1st thru the 11th, with a winner to be announced by December 15th.

Why should you enter?  Because of a cash prize of $1000 that is sponsored by The Bank of Clovis and the Wellness Council.

Only one prize, one winner. Start making your plans or working out your ideas and have fun. Someone will win!

How To Enter:

Upload your final video to YouTube.com and email a link to the video to currywellness@gmail.com. Be sure to include “StayTeen Contest” in the subject line. Your entry will be featured on our website and judging will begin on December 1st, 2009.

If any teen is interested in participation, program details are available from Ms. Kathy Valunas at Clovis High School.

3rd, 4th, & 5th grade students from Grady Elementary School in Grady, New Mexico graduated on Feburary 23, 2009 from a Bullying Hurts Program that was sponsored by the Curry County Wellness Council and the Curry County Sheriff’s Department.  Marvin Nash, a professional rodeo clown introduced the program entitled “Bullying Hurts” in October 2008 to Grady, Texico, and Melrose High School Students who are involved in the Future Farmer’s of America (FFA) program. The high school students then in turn mentored the  3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students on the facts that bullying can truly hurt others.