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East Liverpool planning 5K run/walk

PLANNERS — Preparing for this Saturday’s community 5K run/walk in downtown East Liverpool are, from left, Raymond Wayne with Heritage Thermal; Tiffany Hartlieb and Todd Morando with East Liverpool City Hospital; Brenda Foor who serves as coordinator for the ADAPT Coalition; Matt Karpinski, East Liverpool High School health teacher; Randy Taylor, East Liverpool City Schools superintendent; John Smith, Team Mojo, board member; and Jay Kiger, East Liverpool High School associate principal. - Contributed

EAST LIVERPOOL — Officials with East Liverpool High School are finalizing plans for a community 5K run/walk set to be held Saturday in downtown East Liverpool across from East Liverpool City Hospital.

The race will start at 10 a.m., but organizers encourage race participants and the local community to come early to see Wayne Campbell from Tyler’s Light speak at 9:45 a.m.

Activities are planned from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Some of the free highlights will include a dunk tank, hair braiding, healthy food sampling, music, face painting station, games, music and other post-race entertainment. Attendees will have an opportunity to speak with various health care providers and other community vendors and participate in free health screenings.

In addition to preventing drug abuse, the overarching theme of the event is to raise awareness for the role that increased physical activity plays in obesity prevention.

“Based on the county’s 2016 Community Health Needs Assessment, the prevalence of obesity rates throughout the county have profound consequences for our long-term health,” said Matt Karpinski, a health teacher at ELHS. “A study conducted from 2009 to 2010 revealed that nearly 33 percent of third-graders in our county are considered overweight or obese, which is higher than the state average. Obviously, we are promoting drug prevention awareness, but we really wanted to reach people who might not have exercised regularly to take part in this event, have fun, continue exercising after the event and ultimately reap the mental, social, and physical benefits that coincide with regular exercise. We recognized the obvious need to create a venue to promote and sustain increased physical activity for the entire family.”

Through collaborative partnerships with East Liverpool City Hospital and the ADAPT Coalition, the school managed to waive the entrance fee for 50 first-time race participants. The Team Mojo Foundation, Columbiana County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board and Heritage Thermal Services made contributions to the event.

Many students in the school district have been involved as well. Local elementary students are creating custom certificates for race finishers, high school Career Tech students are providing services for the event, and many high school students are volunteering their time to help on race day. Karpinski acknowledges the overwhelming community support and the overall impact already with current race registrations. Of the 160 registered participants confirmed so far, 60 percent will be running or walking for the first time. Even more promising is that more than half of those “first timers” are students that have never engaged in this level of activity previously.

Registrations will be taken up until 15 minutes before the race commences at 10 a.m. For information, call Karpinski at (330) 386-8750.

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