SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/560546
www.stma.org September 2015 | SportsTurf 7 Allen Johnson, CSFM. johnsona@packers.com F or as long as I can remember the snapshot of health in our country has been a concern. It seems there is no shortage of weight loss programs, exercise equipment and videos to buy, pills to take, music to meditate to, and food guides to live by. Health initiatives come from all angles. They come straight from the White House with encouragement from our First Lady to stay active and eat healthy foods. We will see the NFL's PLAY60 initiative the month of November rife with commercials, field logos and banners, encouraging our children to be active at least 60 minutes per day. We are also seeing an increase in encouragement from our own employers, driven by the incentive to lower insurance premiums, to be a healthy employee. All of these endeavors are worthwhile because the problem is very real. Through our history, we have evolved from a mostly rural, laborious citizenry to an urban, sedentary people. There are plenty of people whose average day sees them walking from their house to the garage, driving to work and parking somewhere near the office door, sitting in front of their computer most of the day, only to return in the evening to spend some quality time in front of the television. Of course that doesn't describe everybody, but you get the point. Even though we aren't all growing up on farms and forced to do childhood labor, which I think is a good thing if not taken to extremes, there is a decent substitute in youth sports. But for all of the public and private industry encouragement we still don't seem to make a positive dent in our nation's health crisis. As a student of politics I've learned that change happens more readily when an issue is raised in the public conscience and is also influenced by the tax code. It's exactly why local governments give tax breaks for companies to call their cit- ies home, and it's also why we've seen smoking rates decline due to the public awareness campaign and the negative tax on that product. What if we took the same approach to our nation's health crisis? What would happen if, in addition to the public aware- ness campaigns, we start to offer incentives to those who support the youth sports industry? What if funds that were allo- cated to maintain athletic fields, including the sports turf managers' salaries, were a tax deduction for private institutions or were eligible for a subsidy for public institutions? Would we see an increase in properly cared for sports fields? Would that correlate to an increase in youth sport participation? Regardless of the likelihood of that scenario, what I'd like everyone to realize is that the Sports Turf Manager is a vital cog in the wheel of success in combating our nation's poor health status. In fact, everyone involved in this industry is a key contributor to stemming the tide of obe- sity. Do you ever look at yourself that way? You should. ■ ST PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE FIGHTING OBESITY ONE FIELD AT A TIME President: Allen Johnson, CSFM Immediate Past President: David Pinsonneault, CSFM, CPRP President-Elect: Jeff Salmond, CSFM Secretary/Treasurer: Timothy Van Loo, CSFM Vice-President Commercial: James Graff Professional Facilities: Dan Bergstrom Academic: Jeffrey Fowler Higher Education: Matt Anderson Parks & Recreation: Sarah Martin, CSFM K-12: Bobby Behr, CSFM Commercial: Doug Schattinger Elected-at-Large: Jimmy Simpson, CSFM Elected-at-Large: David Anderson Chief Executive Officer: Kim Heck STMA OFFICE 805 New Hampshire Suite E Lawrence, KS 66044 Phone: 800-323-3875 Fax: 800-366-0391 Email: STMAinfo@STMA.org www.STMA.org STMA Editorial Communications Committee Chairman: Sarah Martin, CSFM TJ Brewer, CSFM; Joe Churchill; Jim Cornelius, CSFM; Jeremy Driscoll; Cliff Driver, CSFM; Eric Fasbender, CSFM; Mark Frever, CSFM; Matt Hollan; Jamie Mehringer; Greg Petry; Jeff Salmond, CSFM; Troy Smith, CSFM; Scott Stevens; Dr. Joey Young SportsTurf (ISSN 1061-687X) (USPS 000-292) (Reg. U.S. Pat. & T.M. Off.) is published monthly by EPG Media & Specialty Information at 75 Pike Street, Port Jervis, NY 12271. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sportsturf, PO Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076-7823. For subscription information and requests, call Subscription Services at (845) 856-2229. Subscription rates: 1 year, $40 US & Poss.; 2 years, $65 US & Poss.; 1 year, $65 Canada/Foreign Surface, 1 year, $130 Airmail. All sub- scriptions are payable in advance in US funds. Send payments to Sportsturf, PO Box 2123, Skokie, IL 60076- 7823. Phone: (847) 763-9565. Fax: (847) 763-9569. Single copies or back issues, $8 each US/Canada; $12 Foreign. Periodicals postage paid at Port Jervis, NY and additional mailing offices. COPYRIGHT 2015, SportsTurf. Material may not be reproduced or photocopied in any form with- out the written permission of the publisher.