With the new year almost here, many may be considering making health changes.

Debra Hull, Diabetes Educator at SSM Health St. Francis in Maryville, said good health starts today.

“Don’t wait for January, don’t wait for a resolution, good health is a balanced lifestyle,” Hull said. “It can be frustrating to people who want to just fix things quickly and start a resolution, because resolutions usually mean an extreme change and a lot of people tend to fail at that. A lot of our activity is guided through habits, once the body gets used to doing something, you’re going to be drawn to continue to do that.”

Hull said to start out with new habits slowly and make small goals. Hull adds, when considering health, there are three big things to consider.

“The way we fuel our body or feed our body, it is the activity that we carry out and then it’s our stress level, the big three for good health in many avenues is making sure we’re staying on top of those three things,” Hull said. “Under that umbrella of stress, includes our time management. It is such a busy world today and we have to be very intentionally focused on what we want to get out of each day. So I encourage people to look at what you’re spending or wasting your time on everyday.”

Hull said it’s important to make health a priority.

“Do or do not, there is no failure. So you’re either going to choose to do it or not to do it. If you fail, that means you’ve chosen not to do it when it comes to eating healthy,” Hull said. “It’s a matter of making health a priority. It is possible, but you’ve got to be focused and make it a priority now, don’t wait until you have bad knees, don’t wait until you’re forced to because of a diagnosis.”

SSM Health St. Francis offers multiple health programs focused on community health. For more information, contact Debra Hull at (660) 562-7966.

With single digits and temperatures below zero in the forecast this weekend, there are some precautions to take to make sure you ring in the New Year safe and warm.

Ralph Dishong is the Disaster Program Specialist with the American Red Cross of Northwest Missouri.

If you have to venture outside this weekend, Dishong said to make sure you keep warm and avoid skin exposure to the cold.

“Your skin can freeze in a matter of seconds sometimes in the sub zero weather so make sure you wear gloves, facemask, keep covered,” Dishong said. “It’s important to wear light but layered outerwear… it’ll trap air and keep you warmer than one heavy coat.”

Dishong said if you are traveling, to make sure and have an emergency kit in your car which can include flares and extra blankets in case your car breaks down.

“Make sure your cell phone is charged, in the emergency kit you want to have things in there like flashers, something to draw attention,” Dishong said. “One of the best safety tips if you get stranded is to not leave your car. Stay in your car, keep warm, if you do need to start your car to run it for heat, you do need to leave a little bit of ventilation for air to come in. Let somebody know where you’re at if you can call out.”

Dishong said to also be careful with alternative heating sources in your house such as space heaters. It’s important to make sure nothing is near them that can catch fire.

For information on signs of frostbite and hypothermia and what to do, click here.

During cold weather, it’s also important to check on more vulnerable family and friends including the elderly and to not leave pets outdoors for long periods of time.

A goal of an upcoming winter reading program for adults is to get people reading new genres.

The Rolling Hills Library in St. Joseph and Savannah will begin the “Color Your Winter Re(a)d” program in January. The program runs through February and people have two months to read five books to score a “literary bingo.”

Rolling Hills Library Public Relations Specialist Alan Stolfus said their annual adult winter reading program has been going on for almost ten years.

“Winter is the perfect time for reading. It’s cold, people want to stay inside, snuggle up with a good book to read,” Stolfus said. “We see a lot of readers in the winter that will come in and check out multiple books and this is a fun way to get them involved, recognize their reading habits and also to try to get them to read outside of their normal genres. Some people like to read just mysteries or just romance and the goal that we’ve always had with the adult winter reading program is to kind of broaden their reading.”

Participants can complete a literary bingo by reading five books from a color-themed reading log/bingo card. Participants can read five topics in a row or choose any five subjects to score a bingo. Topics include “Silver Screen – Books to Movies,” “Red Hot Romance” and “Cure the Winter Blues – Humorous Stories.”

People can pick up a log any time during January or February at the Belt Branch at 1904 North Belt, the Savannah Branch at 514 West Main or the Bookmobile. Prizes are awarded to participants who score a bingo and they can also attend a program party and be entered into a drawing for more prizes. 

For more information, go to rhcl.org or call (816) 232-5479.

A giant check was presented to an area teacher Thursday morning who was the winner of the Shop St. Joseph Holiday program’s $10,000 prize.

The winning ticket was purchased at Hy-Vee by 31-year-old Bethany Jenkins, a kindergarten teacher from Troy, Kansas.

St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce Vice President of Membership Natalie Redmond said this is the first time the program has had a regional winner.

“(It’s the) first time we’ve had someone outside of the St. Joseph market win, which is kind of exciting because it means people in the region are shopping St. Joe, and first time Hy-Vee had a winner and we had a record breaking ticket year,” Redmond said.

Almost 1.7 million tickets were distributed this year. In 2016, 1.2 million were distributed. 

Jenkins was presented with a giant souvenir check for $10,000 Thursday morning at Hy-Vee, along with a real check to take to the bank. Jenkins said she shops in St. Joseph and at Hy-Vee regularly, as St. Joseph has the largest retail stores near Troy. She said she will most likely use her winnings to pay some bills and maybe go on a trip.

“She’s super excited to share the big check with her kiddos,” Redmond said. “She is going to buy every kid in her class a little something.”

Hy-Vee has been a part of the Shop St. Joseph program since it began ten years ago.

“I think (Shop St. Joseph) is something that keeps people shopping local,” said Mike Basch, Store Director. “For a lot of the businesses in town it keeps them coming into the store instead of going online and buying something. So I think it’s great just to keep our community and keep the business community growing.”

For a list of second chance prize numbers, click here.

If a shopper has a winning ticket for a second chance prize they must go to the store where they got the ticket to claim their prize. 

The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office is giving away toys to any parents or grandparents in need of gifts this holiday season.

Sheriff Steve Cox said due to some generous area residents and businesses, the Sheriff’s Office has toys and stuffed animals available for anyone who may need them.

“Some people that we became friends with and an area business or two wanted to give us some things to help out however we could use them,” Cox said. “We had a staff meeting and decided that we wanted to have a open toy and stuffed animal give away. Hopefully we can help some people make some lifelong memories.”

The toys are new and unwrapped and for children approximately age seven and under. They are available to pick up between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the Sheriff’s Office at 901 Webster St. in Chillicothe. Sheriff Cox said they are giving away the toys until they are gone.

The Sheriff’s Office said all they ask is that anyone coming to the office for toys be a Livingston County resident, come without children and pick out two toys and two stuffed animals for each child.

The Sheriff’s Office also does a Secret Santa program every year for people who are going through difficult times. Sheriff Cox said they work to build relationships with people in the community and help others through their holiday programs.

“Honestly it probably is more therapeutic for our staff than the people that we help,” Cox said. “Every day we often see the worst in humanity, people at their worst, people with huge problems, those kinds of things, but with this, I think it’s touched every deputy’s soul… it’s just refreshing and rewarding and really makes us appreciate our job.”

For more information, contact the Sheriff’s Office at (660) 646-0515 or go to their Facebook page.

Open Door Food Kitchen held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday afternoon for its new location.

The food kitchen has been serving hungry people in St. Joseph at its location at 510 Edmond St. for over 30 years.

President of the Board for Open Door Food Kitchen LeeAnn Smiley said relocating has been an idea in the works for awhile.   

“This is a collaborative project of getting this underway. It’s not something that we had as an initiative, but when we were approached and looked at the concept, we were very excited about the idea,” Smiley said. “Our current facility is not as energy efficient as it should be, it’s not one level, it’s not (easily) accessible for some of our patrons, but the new building’s going to be all of that for us and more. So we want to thank everybody that has participated, that has helped, that has volunteered, that has donated, that has made this possible at this time that we can have a groundbreaking.”

The new facility will be at 619 S. Eighth Street in St. Joseph. Smiley said, weather permitting, construction will start in March and the goal is to have the new facility open in the fall.

With colder temperatures on the way, there are some safety measures to follow to prevent fires due to heating sources.

Steve Henrichson is a Fire Inspector with the St. Joseph Fire Department. Henrichson said, nationally, fires related to space heaters are a major issue but locally, it has not been a problem in the past few years with about one or two reported per year. However, a fire about five years ago caused by a space heater too close to a curtain resulted in the deaths of four residents.

Henrichson said the most important thing to do with any heating source is to give it three feet of space.

“Space heater, water heater, things like that, just because of the radiant heat over time… it can cause problems,” Henrichson said. “Fireplaces… say, somebody has a rocking chair or something that’s in the same area, been there for years and years and all of a sudden it bursts into flames, it’s what we call pyrolysis. It’s just a slow decay of a piece of wood getting heated up over time, it just slowly deteriorates to the point where one day it decides to actually start on fire.”

Henrichson said it’s also important to plug things like space heaters directly into the wall and to check lights when putting up holiday decorations.

“The biggest thing with Christmas lights is making sure they’re in good repair,” Henrichson said. “Live (Christmas) trees, be really careful, make sure they’ve got plenty of water because a live tree, once it dries out will go up quick.”

Henrichson said to also test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to make sure they’re working properly.

“Almost 20 years I’ve been an investigator and I’ve never gone into a house that had a working smoke detector that had a fatality in it,” Henrichson said. “You should have just changed your batteries with ‘Change your clock, change your batteries,’ but after 10 years smoke detectors need to be taken and replaced just because they are a mechanical device that after 10 years of running 24/7 they lose their effectiveness and efficiency.”

For more winter heating safety tips, visit the National Fire Protection Association website.

The St. Joseph Police Department was recognized recently as a Missouri certified law enforcement agency.

Sgt. Todd Derr is the Policy Compliance and Certification Manager for the St. Joseph Police Department. Derr said there are over 200 standards for law enforcement agencies to meet to be certified.

“Some of the standards cover internal affairs, use of force, fiscal management, things of that nature, and there’s specific criteria under all of those, of course that’s just a few,” Derr said.

St. Joseph Police Chief Chris Connally said the three-year accreditation process culminated with an on-site inspection with five assessors who spent a day and a half going through proofs of compliance, riding along with officers and more.

“Just taking a thorough from top to bottom look at the department partly to make sure that we do what we’re saying that we’re doing,” Connally said. “It’s a statement of the professionalism of the men and women of the St. Joseph Police Department. I hope that it demonstrates to our community that we’re always striving to reach the highest standards and to put the most professional services together and have our personnel perform at the highest standards that we can.”

The St. Joseph Police Department was recognized in Jefferson City on Thursday, Dec. 7.