Grant helps to promote healthy lifestyles

MVILR Past President Lynn Henry (left) with Library Director Shannon Pritting (right)
in front of MVILR Health Collection in SUNY Poly Library.

Healthy minds, healthy bodies, and overall healthy lifestyles are the goal of new efforts currently underway at SUNY Polytechnic Institute – efforts further made possible by an American Heart Association (AHA) Community Impact Grant.

Promoting heart healthy eating habits and a healthy lifestyle, the grant was obtained through the recent partnering of The Mohawk Valley Institute for Learning in Retirement (MVILR) with the SUNY Poly Library and the SUNY Poly Health and Wellness Center.

The grant is being used to build a collection of books and other materials in the SUNY Poly Library related to healthy eating, healthy lifestyles, and health-focused information. In addition to the collection of books, funds will be used to have a dietitian provide consultation services to the SUNY Poly and MVILR community. Additional health related information materials and displays selected by the Health and Wellness Center will also be funded through the Grant.

MVILR Past President Lynn Henry coordinated the grant, working closely with MVILR Executive Director Ann Maher while Library Director Shannon Pritting and Health Promotion Coordinator Stacey Genther coordinated SUNY Poly’s efforts with this grant.

The MVILR AHA Grant Collection of books can be found in the first floor lobby of Cayan Library, and all materials are available for MVILR members as well as SUNY Poly students, faculty and staff to check out.

Dates that a dietitian will be available for consultations with the SUNY Poly and MVILR community are still being developed as of this writing.

“The AHA Community Impact Grant will help to provide information about healthy choices for both the MVILR and the SUNY Poly Community,” said SUNY Poly Director of Library and Learning Resources Shannon Pritting. “The SUNY Poly and MVILR community will benefit from the expertise of a dietitian, in addition to having high quality material available in the Library and in the Health and Wellness Center. We thank MVILR and specifically Past President Lynn Henry for coordinating this grant.  This is another example of MVILR’s positive contributions to SUNY Poly.”

This inter-generational effort supported by this grant will help raise awareness about healthy lifestyles to the SUNY Poly students, faculty and staff, and the roughly 450 members of MVILR.