Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority joins Million Pound Challenge
by Temple Hemphill
September 1, 2006
Two hundred thousand Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., sorority members are being encouraged to actively join the sorority's partnership with the Chicago Defender's Million Pound Challenge that kicked off earlier this summer.
Loann Honesty King, Alpha Kappa Alpha program chairman, said the sorority is up for the challenge.
"Our sorority members alone will meet the Million Pound Challenge (MPC) halfway mark by June 2007 and the full mark by our Centennial Celebration in 2008," King predicted to the Defender.
King was joined by sorority members including Barbara A. McKinzie, international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Roland Martin, Defender executive editor and general manager, along with the press, at the endorsement announcement held Thursday at the sorority's international headquarters, 5656 S. Stony Island Ave.
Hanging above the podium was a banner with the letters, E-S-P which spelled out the phrase - Enthusiastically Shedding Pounds. Referring to the banner, McKinzie said, "This endorsement represents the first strike in the war against obesity. Enthusiastically Shedding Pounds and getting behind the Million Pound Challenge and other efforts nationwide are potent tools in the arsenal to fight this war."
Martin developed the MPC, a 12-month health and fitness initiative to challenge African Americans in the Chicago area to collectively lose one million pounds. Participants are encouraged to lose weight and increase physical fitness through developing healthy diets and productive exercise habits.
Martin said the MPC has signed more than forty local churches and numerous block clubs and walking groups. He said the program is going national, which makes Alpha Kappa Alpha's involvement, timely.
"To have Alpha Kappa Alpha enrolled is important because it's an international organization. You already have a chapter structure so it's much easier for us to be able to get the word out because of the infrastructure in place," Martin said.
Martin said he hopes other Greek organizations will join Alpha Kappa Alpha's lead in the battle against obesity.
"We don't want to be honest with ourselves. We go out and buy new clothes because we gain more weight but the reality is we're losing our members to health diseases," he stated matter-of-factly.
According to King, African Americans are also losing the battle against mental health. She said the MPC supports the sorority's current health initiative that is focused on mental health.
"We know that stress and depression cause overweight (issues) in the African American community," King said.
McKinzie concluded the endorsement announcement by vowing to promote the MPC in an upcoming issue of the sorority's quarterly magazine, IVY LEAF. She said she also plans to encourage program participation during speaking engagements and scheduled visits to the sorority's 900 chapters throughout the country and abroad - including approximately 15 graduate chapters in the greater Chicago Metropolitan area.
MPC founding partners include, UniCare, Illinois Department of Public Health, the Chicago Park District, Wellness on Wheels, Salem Baptist Church of Chicago, BASUAH, (Brothers and Sisters United Against HIV/AIDS), AARP, V-103 (Clear Channel Radio Chicago) and Broadcast Ministers' Alliance of Chicago. For more information visit the Defender's homepage at
www.chicagodefender.com.