On Friday, March 19, a group met for the first time to discuss plans to address childhood obesity. Lots of ideas were brought up. Efforts can go in three directions: primary prevention, secondary prevention and treatment. It’s clear that we need to work with the schools, so Karl Schwalm will work toward getting someone from the schools on this project. We all agreed that for primary and secondary prevention we need to start with kids at an earlier age. One idea, discussed at length, is to do screening in schools at an earlier age. Amber King and Stephanie Sisler agreed to work on suggestions for how to follow up on students who screen positive. Amy Ritchie, who already is involved in 9th grade screening, is anxious to help with this. Karl will ask Becky Aiken about attending the next school health committee meeting to discuss this with school personnel. He will also talk with Kristin Spiker from the Garrett County Extension about programs they have. Thomas George mentioned that he is very interested in dealing with obesity in the healthcare setting and recently completed his PhD in this field. Thomas and Shelley will get together about the grant she is applying for. Shelley also recommended we find a name for our group and make it a separate action group on mygarrettcounty.com. Thomas asked about our goals for the group, which we have not identified specifically. Karl requested that Thomas send him a list of outcome goals and possible solutions that Thomas mentioned in the meeting. Karl will then come up with a rough draft and present that to the work group.