YMCA Of The USA and Kimberly-Clark Award Grants To Improve America's Health
Chicago and Dallas, April 17, 2006 --YMCA of the USA and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB) announced recipients of 30 "Kimberly-Clark Everyday Healthy Day Grants," totaling $300,000, to YMCAs implementing innovative healthy living initiatives to positively impact the physical health and wellness of individuals and families in their local communities. Part of Kimberly-Clark's $3 million pledge in support of America's YMCAs over the next two years, these grants represent a shared commi™ent by Kimberly-Clark and the YMCA to Activate America™, the YMCA's national public health initiative combating obesity and chronic disease and seeking to make healthy living a reality for millions of Americans.
"Kimberly-Clark's partnership in YMCA Activate America demonstrates a new level of commi™ent to America's collective health and wellness through this important public health initiative," said Sam Evans of the YMCA of the USA. "We have found shining examples of YMCAs' abilities to significantly impact community health in these 30 grant winners. Kimberly-Clark has been a devoted ally supporting and encouraging local YMCAs through Activate America's work to help American families overcome obstacles to healthy living."
YMCA Activate America is an innovative public health initiative of the YMCA movement that seeks to create environments where Americans feel supported in their efforts to eat healthy foods and be physically active. Through organizational transformation, community leadership and strategic partnerships, the initiative is helping to enhance YMCAs' abilities to serve "health seekers" and their families. Health seekers are individuals who want to be active and healthy but continually start and stop the process and, therefore, have been unable to sustain a commi™ent to healthy living.
"As a company dedicated to improving the health, hygiene and well-being of people every day, Kimberly-Clark is proud to support the YMCA and its public health initiative, Activate America," said Thomas J. Falk, chairman and CEO of Kimberly-Clark Corporation. "We recognize these YMCAs and their programs as models for making healthy living a reality for American children and families in Kimberly-Clark hometowns and nationwide."
Distributed to YMCAs in large metropolitan areas and smaller communities alike, the 30 grants reward outstanding examples of some of the progressive health and wellness work being done by YMCAs locally. Examples include:
- The Diamond Bar/Walnut YMCA (Diamond Bar, CA) will use its grant to implement a research based, field tested SPARK curriculum, designed to promote physical activity and healthy food choices, for school age children.
- The Farmington Family YMCA (Farmington Hills, MI) will use its grant for YMCA Active Living for Teens (YALT), a 16-week program using technology, lifetime sports and other activities to encourage healthy lifestyles for middle school students.
- The Ed Isakson/Alpharetta YMCA (Alpharetta, GA) will use its grant to support "Youth Fit For Life," a comprehensive, research based program stressing fitness, health awareness and lifelong exercise habits for youth ages 5-12.
Please visit http://www.ymca.net/about_the_ymca/press_room.html for a complete list of grant recipients.
Through the national YMCA Activate America initiative, YMCAs are working to transform their organizations and lead community-wide efforts to make healthy living a reality for millions of Americans. As a National Sponsor of YMCA Activate America, Kimberly-Clark is not only supporting grants to local YMCAs, but also supporting other key components of the initiative, including YMCA organizational transformation efforts to better serve health seekers and children, and YMCA Healthy Kids® Day. A National Sponsor of YMCA of the USA since 2001, the Kimberly-Clark Corporation has committed nearly $12 million to the YMCA to further the Y's mission of building strong kids, strong families and strong communities.
YMCAs have long been at the forefront of efforts to serve the health and wellness of individuals and communities. YMCA Activate America is meant to build on the long history and service of meeting community and individual needs. YMCAs are collectively one of the largest providers of health and wellness programs and activities in the country, serving more than 10,000 communities and neighborhoods nationwide. They are also collectively the largest provider of child care, afterschool and youth sports programs.
About YMCA Activate America™
YMCA Activate America builds upon the YMCA's 150-year track record of pioneering efforts that respond to timely societal needs in this case, America's health crisis. Launched in 2004, YMCA Activate America™ is an ambitious public health initiative that is seeking to make healthy living a reality for millions of Americans by directly helping individuals and families live healthier lives, and by helping YMCAs lead their communities and the nation to reduce barriers and increase supports for healthy living. Expert advisors to the YMCA on this initiative include: Harvard University School of Public Health, Stanford University School of Medicine, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Steps to a HealthierUS, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Active Living by Design, the Chronic Disease Directors and others. Visit http://www.ymca.net/activateamerica.
About Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Kimberly-Clark and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 150 countries. Every day, 1.3 billion peoplealmost a quarter of the world's populationtrust Kimberly-Clark brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Kleenex, Scott, Huggies, Pull-Ups, Kotex and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds the No. 1 or No. 2 share position in more than 80 countries. To learn more about the company's 134-year history of innovation, visit www.kimberly-clark.com.
About the YMCA
YMCAs build strong kids, strong families and strong communities. YMCA of the USA is the national resource office for the nation's 2,594 YMCAs, collectively the nation's largest not-for-profit community service organization, serving more than 20 million people of all faiths, races, ages, incomes and abilities, including more than 9 million youth. YMCAs offer a broad range of programs including youth leadership and volunteerism and are collectively the nation's largest providers of afterschool child care. Visit http://www.ymca.net.
