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AT A GLANCE

April 2-May 22

• Adopt a healthy habit and keep it going for seven weeks (and hopefully longer).
• and attend the Healthy Activity Fair (kickoff event), April 4. Release time with supervisory approval is appropriate.
• Earn StayWell points for $100 gift cards (for eligible employees in all health plans except Kaiser Permanente).

April 7

• Benefitting the ASUCD Scholarship endowment (tuition support for outstanding students) and We Are Aggie Pride (emergency funding for students in need).
• or the day of the stride.

UC Walks: May 22

• Group walks around the campus.
• Earn StayWell points for $100 gift cards (for eligible employees in all health plans except Kaiser Permanente).

UC cancer research: April 15 tax deadline

• Donate with your tax returns.
• Lines 405 and 413.

A healthy you, a healthy student body and a healthy fund for cancer research.

We’ve got some suggestions to help make all this happen, starting with the Mind Body Wellness Challenge, which strides into the first 5K Stride for Aggie Pride and the fourth annual UC Walks. Students, staff and faculty are welcome to participate in all of these events.

And we also report on UC Provost and Executive Vice President Aimee Dorr’s letter asking people to consider using their state tax returns to donate to UC cancer research.

The annual encourages students, staff, faculty, retirees and members of the general public to each adopt a healthy habit and keep it up for seven weeks, based on research that shows if you can go that long with a new habit, chances are you’ll keep doing it.

The campus’s unit is organizing this year’s challenge. The includes a self-assessment, based on the Wellness Wheel, to help you decide how to challenge yourself. And you can find even more information at the .

is under way (and recommended), or you can sign up at the kickoff event from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 4, in the Activities and Recreation Center Ballroom. (You are welcome to participate even if you don’t attend the kickoff.)

Registration will bring you regular emails with links and resources to keep you on track, and information on . If your health plan includes StayWell, you’ll earn points for attending any of these events — points to help you get your $100 StayWell gift card. See more information below.

The program schedule includes:

• The Benefits of Exercise and How to Get Moving
• Sustainable Gardening — Focus on Edibles
• Hickey Gym Assessment Faire
• What Are Your Numbers Telling You About Your Health?
• Sustainability Walk
• Don’t Just Sit There — Work Out at Your Desk!
• Tai Chi Chuan on the Green

Wellness Passports will be handed out at the kickoff (or, if you’re not going, a download will be available soon on the ), to record your weekly progress and collect stamps to note attendance at Wellness Challenge activities.

The best reward in this challenge is better health — but there will be a drawing for prizes, too, including top prize of a two-night stay at at Bodega Bay.

The Wellness Challenge begins Tuesday, April 2, and runs through Wednesday, May 22, the date of this year’s UC Walks — when group walks are scheduled around the UC system. (And there’s a hint for you: Maybe walking can be your new healthy habit.)

• 5K Stride for Aggie Pride — Run or walk, either way, proceeds will go to , which provides emergency funding to students in need, and the endowment, which provides tuition support for outstanding students. In addition, the ASUCD is matching every dollar that comes into the endowment through June 30, up to $50,000.

The 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) stride, organized by students and staff, is scheduled for Sunday, April 7. The course begins at the north end of the Quad, then winds through the core campus and along the arboretum waterway before ending up back at the Quad.

Everyone in the community — on campus and around it — is invited to participate: students, faculty, staff and members of the general public, all ages.

is under way, and if you sign up by Saturday (March 16) you’ll get an early registration discount and be guaranteed a T-shirt. It’s $7 (early registration) or $15 for students (K-12 to college), and $20 (early registration) or $30 for nonstudents. (Free for children under 5, or $7 to get a shirt and bib.)

Registration the day of the stride is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. at the nortnend of the Quad. Group stretching is set to begin at 9 a.m. and the run-walk at 9:30.

Read the . More information is available and on . Check out the .

• StayWell Health Assessment — UC encourages employees and retirees to take this confidential assessment annually, to receive immediate, personalized feedback on healthier living. Additional information and resources are available to help people make lifestyle choices that will enhance quality of life.

gives a $100 gift card to each retiree and eligible employee who is enrolled in a UC health plan (except Kaiser Permanente), upon completion of the health assessment and follow-up activities or follow-up wellness coaching. Eligible spouses and domestic partners receive $50 gift cards.

(Kaiser members and their family members age 18 and older can take free health assessments through Kaiser's program.)

Under the StayWell program, employees and retirees must complete their health assessments by June 15 and follow-up activities by Dec. 15. The health assessment alone is worth 50 points, and you will need 100 points total to get your gift card.

Employees and retirees can earn their follow-up points by participating in certain campus-sponsored wellness events (including the Wellness Challenge and its various programs, 25 points each, and UC Walks, 25 points).

• Research funding — Provost Dorr sent a letter this week to everyone in the UC system, asking them to consider donating “to two highly regarded cancer research programs that are administered by the UC Office of the President.”

California Tax Form 540 includes lines for donations to each program:

• California Breast Cancer Research Fund (Line 405) — Contributions over the years have supported such important research as developing simple tests to pinpoint whether the cancer is aggressive, investigating therapies to block the cancer, identifying environmental factors that can contribute to the disease, and improving support networks for patients and families.
• California Cancer Research Fund (Line 413) — This fund, like the California Breast Cancer Research Fund, is renowned not only for its innovative research, but also for working with advocates throughout the state to target the issues and needs of communities, especially the underserved. Administered by UC's Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program, the California Cancer Research Fund today supports a project to increase the awareness of the impact of tobacco use and cancer in vulnerable populations. This year, research will focus on lung cancer screening in high-risk communities to detect the disease in its early and treatable stages.

“No contribution is too small, and 95 percent of contributions to these two programs go directly to cancer research or community-based education,” Dorr wrote.

“Thanks to the donations from tax filers, research in all parts of California will help strengthen prevention programs, decrease cancer rates, improve survival and quality of life, and cut health care costs.”

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