Lose, then give

Weight Watchers program helps clients with extra pounds, then offers way to assist community

Friday, Dec. 11, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photos Weight Watcher's member runs in a 5K event in Solomons. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story Click here to enlarge this photo Lose for Good member Melissa Kerr donates 60 pounds of food. Click here to enlarge this photo Gail and Ed Stanpano, Julia Bates, Sharon Weimert and Karon Strickland are among those gathered around a donation to go to local food banks. The collection in Great Mills totaled approximately 3,000 pounds.

She thought she had tried everything she could to lose weight. Finally, after seeking medical help, Diane Little of Great Mills resigned herself to getting lap-band surgery. After being denied funding for surgery by her medical providers until she had successfully joined a weight loss program, Little turned to friends for suggestions. Her friends and doctor recommended Weight Watchers in the Great Mills area.

With the help of that group, Little found that she could lose weight and, at the same time, help needier members of the community.

For the past two years, Weight Watchers groups in St. Mary's joined in the battle against two ongoing national problems — hunger and obesity— by participating in the Lose for Good campaign. Lose for Good is an eight-week program that connects people determined to lose weight with an opportunity to donate food to local charities. While members are not required to donate any of their own food, many members in St. Mary's and Calvert County were inspired to do so based on the amount of weight they lost.

Those who participated in the program were able to help raise money for Share our Strength and Action Against Hunger through the sponsorship of Weight Watchers. Share our Strength is an organization working to end childhood hunger nationally. From corporate sponsorships like Weight Watchers, funds are raised to support programs and events for children. Weight Watchers also donates funds to Action Against Hunger, a program that delivers relief in 40 countries, providing assistance to those in emergency situations.

After being in the program for a year and a half and participating in Lose for Good, Little lost 107 pounds. "It got to the point where I didn't need the surgery anymore," Little said. "Joining Lose for Good also made me aware of the need to fill the food banks."

This is the second year that Weight Watchers has conducted a Lose for Good campaign. For every pound lost around the country by members during the campaign period, Weight Watchers donates one dollar, up to $1 million.

"Weight Watchers encouraged local leaders to organize food drives in addition to Lose for Good," said Paula Gray of Solomons Island, lead coordinator for Weight Watchers in St. Mary's County and Calvert County. Gray volunteered as a coordinator for the campaign. "As a child, my mother grew up on a small island in the Chesapeake Bay. Her parents were very dependent upon the water for their source of living," Gray said. "She did not have much, food was very scarce. I was very inspired to do the program."

Gray joined Weight Watchers in 2000 and has been a leader for nearly four years. She works weekly with five different Weight Watchers groups based in St. Mary's and Calvert counties. This year, Gray spearheaded the effort to get members to lose weight while raising awareness and donations for a good cause. In 2008, the groups she works with raised 37,000 pounds of food for End Hunger in Calvert County and Helping Hands in St. Mary's County.

This year, between her various meetings, her members lost a grand total of 16,000 pounds within a six-week period and donated 52,017 pounds of food to the charities.

One of the ways Gray was able to raise awareness was by holding the first Weight Watchers 5K in Solomons Island in September. "We had close to 200 people show up," Gray said. "There was no charge —except that people brought something to donate." From the 5K run alone, Gray raised 933 pounds of food.

"I was amazed," Gray said. "Members would bring in the equivalent of what they lost in weight — sometimes a hundred pounds at a time!" Although donating food based on how much weight was lost was optional, even members who hadn't lost yet brought in food as a commitment to losing weight, Gray said.

"I decided to join because I was really heavy and became extremely concerned about my health," said Melissa Kerr of Lexington Park and a member of Weight Watchers for two and a half years. "I wanted to be there when my kids graduated college and got married. At the weight I was — it wasn't going to happen. The weight just creeped up on me over the years." Kerr lost 130 pounds during her first year and half at Weight Watchers and has participated in Lose for Good since its inception last year.

The Lose for Good campaign this year raised more than two million pounds of food nationally. Members lost an estimated 4 million pounds and Weight Watchers will donate at least $1 million to Share our Strength and Action Against Hunger.

"The women and men in my group are the most supportive human beings on the earth, and that's why I keep going," Kerr said. "It's a wonderful program. I still go every Saturday even though I have reached my weight goal."

"I have a new confidence that I hadn't had in a long, long time," Little said. "I'm in way better health than I used to be. I think it would work for just about anyone willing to stick with it."