Dr. Douglas Morrell has long been an advocate of healthy lifestyles, challenging Rush County to make a change in the junk food that is readily available to local schoolchildren and nursing home patients—to name a few.

Community leaders have long heard Morrell’s thoughts and medical observations on the harmful effects that a no-exercise, junk food diet can have and is having on local residents, but they probably didn’t expect the doctor’s latest move: a $40,000 challenge.

Of course, it’s $40,000 that comes with a few stipulations.

The Life Long Wellness initiative, a program that was formed out of a collaboration with 4Communities and Winning Community Partners, needs to raise $40,000 by Thanksgiving in order to get their program up and running.

This program includes several different sectors, including fitness education by local fitness professionals, nutrition by licensed dieticians, wellness monitoring and guidance by Rush Memorial Hospital professionals, and smoking cessation, all free to participants. The ultimate goal, of course, is to raise awareness of healthy lifestyle alternatives, much like the same passion that Dr. Morrell has for the very same initiative.

“The program brings together many of the local services available to address fitness,” Morrell stated in his Sept. 11 letter to the editor. “It is significant that part of the program will be nutrition that will be taught by licensed dieticians, and having wellness monitoring and guidance done by licensed medical professionals from RMH. I believe that the city, county, heath care organizations and the school system should take a proactive approach and lead by example. The school system should be involved since it is an integral part of teaching our children a healthy lifestyle.”

Regarding his challenge, Morrell had the following to say.

“I understand that there are only 90 days available to raise $40,000. Therefore, I am offering this program a unique opportunity to be fully funded and to assist the community leadership advocating life long wellness.”

Part one of the challenge went out to Rush Memorial Hospital, and the community’s two nursing home and assisted living facilities, Flatrock River Lodge and Miller’s Merry Manor.

“I will donate $10,000 if Rush Memorial Hospital, Miller’s Merry Manor and Flatrock River Lodge remove all the non-diet soda, wrapped snack foods and vending machines from their cafeterias and facilities,” Morrell stated in his letter.

Flatrock River Lodge’s Admissions and Marketing Director, Gloria Miller, thinks Morrell’s feelings and thoughts on the issue of obesity and healthy living are right on.

“A few years ago, I tried to work with Dr. Morrell through this facility and went to our vendors and asked them to put fruit in the machines, and healthier snacks,” she said. “They wouldn’t do it. The fruit spoils and no one buys it, so that didn’t fly at all. I did, however, get them to put healthy snacks in the first two rows of the machines, such as granola bars and sugar free stuff, and got them to put juices and diet sodas in the machines, but honestly, my hands are tied further than that.”

Miller says the issue is a patient’s rights matter.

“It boils down solely to patient’s rights,” she said. “Just like we can’t make them take their medicine or do anything else they don’t want to do, we can’t tell them that they can’t have candy or Cokes or anything like that. This is their home and they have the same rights here as they would in their home.”

Morrell doesn’t buy into the patient’s rights defense.

“Can a patient in the hospital buy a plasma TV? Motor oil? A fishing boat? Condoms? No. These facilities don’t have to sell this stuff. I have so much trouble keeping my diabetic patients in the nursing homes on a diet because of the junk that is readily available at their fingertips,’ Morrell said. “It’s not a choice. We have a responsibility here.”

Chris Fields, administrator of Miller’s Merry Manor, was also contacted and given a chance to respond to Dr. Morrell’s challenge. He hung up on this reporter in mid-sentence.

Attempts to make contact with Rush Memorial Hospital C.E.O. Brad Smith, who is a partner in the Life Long Wellness program, were unsuccessful as of press time.

Attempts to contact Pam Leisure, also a partner with the Life Long Wellness program, were also unsuccessful.

Part two of Morrell’s challenge went out to the city and county.

“I will donate another $10,000 if the city and county remove all vending machines, wrapped snack foods, and non-diet soda from all their buildings and facilities including athletic fields,” Morrell’s letter stated. “Any facilities that receive or have received significant monetary support from the city and county (such as the Boys & Girls Club) would be included.

“I include the city and county in this proposal to remove the junk food and vending machines from their facilities only because the city and county were sponsors of the Life Long Wellness Grant and felt that both branches of government should have the opportunity to practice what they preach,” Morrell continued in his letter. “It was recently published in the Republican that the county health insurance costs went up 24 percent and this is a great opportunity for the county to do something about it.”

County Commissioner Dwight Sweet was contacted for a response, but declined to comment.

Rushville Mayor Robert Bridges agrees with Morrell’s challenge to good health, but feels that city officials cannot police what city residents and its employees eat.

“I personally thought that the context and content of Dr. Morrell’s letter was good. I encourage everyone to practice good nutritional values,” he said. “The downside is that it’s difficult as a public official to legislate what people eat. We should encourage these good practices and are doing so with our involvement in the Life Long Wellness program, and the nice fitness trails that our parks offer to those who want to use them, and again, I encourage everyone to practice these habits.”

Bridges said that City Hall doesn’t even have a vending machine. The refrigerator there is filled a majority of the time with water and diet sodas, he said. The courthouse and police department, however, do offer vending machines.

The third and final installment of Morrell’s challenge was directed at the school system, an entity that the doctor has been challenging since his tenure on the Rush County school board.

“ I will donate another $20,000 if the school system removes all vending machines (including teacher lounges), candy, ice cream machines, all wrapped snack foods, and all drinks except water, iced tea, and milk from their facilities including the athletic facilities,” Morrell said in his letter.

“Schools have no business offering any substance that will knowingly cause harm to a student or impair his ability to learn. Schools are supposed to be advocates of children, be part of the solution to childhood obesity and misbehavior, and not part of the problem,” his letter continued. “The school athletic programs are funded by selling junk food at sporting events. What kind of a message is the school sending? We are seeing the results of this practice since it is part of the obesity epidemic problem. How can parents teach a children that smoking, drinking, and doing drugs are bad when they actively smoke, drink, and do drugs themselves in front of the child?”

According to Morrell, the vending machines in the schools fund the school’s athletic program, and make upwards of $100,000 per year.

“It’s easy money for them to offer this junk to students,” he said. “If they cared at all about their students, they would improve school lunches themselves and eliminate the junk and perhaps find a more innovative fundraising tactic.”

Rush County Schools Superintendent Dr. John Williams was unavailable for comment at press time.

Morrell was not surprised at many of the city officials’ decision not to comment.

“I’m completely unshocked. That’s what I expected and exactly why I wrote this article,” Morrell said. “I’m certainly not excited about giving away $40,000, but right now, I feel that the chances of the United States capturing Osama Bin Laden before Thanksgiving are higher than the chances of me having to fork over $40,000.”



Rushville Republican staff writer Elizabeth Gist can be contacted at (765) 932-2222 or via e-mail at elizabeth.gist@cnhimedia.com. To add a comment visit our Website at www.rushvillerepublican.com.