Here is the eighth installment of ideas for incorporating health programming into your overall library programming strategy. Keep looking for us on the first of each month to find programming ideas for three months out. Still working on summer programming? See June: National Home Safety Month, July: National UV Safety Month, and August: National Immunization Awareness Month.
When September hits, summer is definitely over and lives get busier, which means we tend to be less active and fast food becomes a stronger temptation — a set up for cholesterol rates to rise. It is the perfect time to celebrate National Cholesterol Awareness Month at your library, and promoting it will be easy with these free resources:
- Quick and Easy: printable puzzles and other activities for children and handy printables for adults.
- Featured Resources: books for children and adults and links to reliable information online
- Book Club: ideas for your book discussion group
- Tie Ins: to traditional September library programming
- Community Resources: local agencies to contact
- Publicity Resources: free items to help you publicize National Cholesterol Awareness Month at your library through social networking sites or traditional printed materials
- Fun Stuff: fun, interactive links
Quick and Easy
Puzzles and Activities for Children:
- Build a Healthy Heart nutrition puzzle activity from the American Heart Association (AHA)
- Activities for the Heart activity page from the AHA
- Making Healthful Choices activity page from the AHA
- Heart Word Game from the AHA
- Take Your Child to the Supermarket Day activities from Fruit and Veggies: More Matters
- All Forms Count! supermarket fruit and vegetable scavenger hunt
- Eat Your Colors Every Day! supermarket fruit and vegetable scavenger hunt
- I’m Stuck on Fruits & Veggies! reward chart
- Rate That Snack! snack questionnaire from the AHA
- Why Do People Exercise? interview chart from the AHA
- Today’s Specials menu activity page from the AHA
- What is a Healthy Diet? crossword from Novo Nordisk
- My Family Health Tree from the AHA
Printables for Adults
- Lower Your Risk of High Cholesterol Pledge from the American Heart Association
- Cholesterol Tracker from the American Heart Association
- Downloadable Medicine Chart from the American Heart Association
Featured Resources
Books about Cholesterol, Exercise, Diet, and the Medical Industry
Reliable Online Information
- American Heart Association – Low Cholesterol
- American Heart Association – News Release Search Tool
- Centers for Disease Control – High Cholesterol: Understanding Your Risks
- Events of the Heart – The Real Deal. Frequently asked questions about women’s heart health.
- Family Doctor – Cholesterol: What Your Level Means
- WebMD – Cholesterol Management Guide
Book Club
Observe National Cholesterol Education Month this month by choosing one of these discussion-provoking books for your September book club:
- Healing Hearts: a Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon by Kathy Magliato M.D. (Random House, 2010). The realities of heart surgery and heart disease from the perspective of one of the few female heart surgeons in the United States. (Also published as Matters of the Heart: a Memoir of a Female Heart Surgeon)
- Love in the Time of Cholesterol: a Memoir with Recipes by Cecily Ross, (McGraw-Hill, 2006). Food writer Cecily Ross shares how her life and career have changed in the five years since she almost lost her husband to a heart attack.
- “Look Inside” – Read the first few pages at Amazon
Tie Ins
Hispanic Heritage Month
September 15 – October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month. Celebrate Hispanic heritage, practice your Spanish, and show teens that low cholesterol food can be easy and fun by trying some easy (no-cooking required) Hispanic vegetarian recipes together:
- Homemade Salsa, Veggie Wraps, and Mango Smoothies. This bilingual (English-Spanish) cookbook from the American Heart Association contains these recipes and many more.
- Enchiladas in an Instant. Part of the Vegetarian Starter Kit from Vegetarian Times magazine.
Community Resources
Find a local agency to partner with, a speaker, or other local resources here:
- Find your local American Heart Association office.
- Fruit & Veggie Happenings in Your Local Community from Fruit and Veggies: More Matters
Publicity Resources
Use this free material alongside your library’s September programming information – newsletter, blog, posters, or flyers – to promote both your library’s programs and National Cholesterol Education Month.
- My Life Check, a cardiovascular assessment tool from the American Heart Association, publicity resources
Fun Stuff
Goof off at the reference desk and amaze your friends on Twitter . . . OR add some fun and helpful interactive links to a library program, your library website, Facebook page, or Twitter feed:
Games & Quizzes
- Food Face Game from WebMD
- Fruit and Veggie Matching Game from Food Champs
- Healthy Choices Maze from Food Champs
- What’s Your Food IQ? from WebMD
- What’s Your Move IQ? from WebMD
- Fruit and Veggie Pyramid Game from Food Champs
- Dining Decisions from the Centers for Disease Control
- Cholesterol IQ Quiz from the American Heart Association
- Rate Your Restaurant Diet quiz from the Center for Science in the Public Interest
Interactive Tools
- 10-year Cardiovascular Disease Risk Calculator – what are your odds of having a heart attack in the next ten years? Find out with this tool from the National Cholesterol Education Program
- Food-O-Meter – look up cholesterol content of basic and fast foods with this tool from WebMD
- Cholesterol Health Check – personalized cholesterol health assessment from WebMD
- Cholesterol 101: What Your Levels Mean – slideshow from WebMD
- Lowering Cholesterol: 15 Tips for Avoiding Heart Disease – slideshow from WebMD
- A Visual Guide to Heart Disease – slideshow from WebMD
- Managing Cholesterol interactive tutorial from Medline Plus
- Controlando el Colesterol interactive tutorial from Medline Plus
- Food & Fitness Planner – monitor your cholesterol intake with this tool from WebMD
- My Life Check cardiovascular assessment tool from the American Heart Association
- The Heart Profilers from the American Heart Association
Do you have additional National Cholesterol Education Month programming ideas that you want to share? Feel free to leave a comment.
