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Rosalie Aguilar-Santos

Rosalie Aguilar Santos, MS, is Salud America!'s national project coordinator. She is passionate about nutrition, physical activity, and opportunities to engage communities in advocacy actions to promote Latino childhood health.

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Articles by Rosalie Aguilar-Santos

Report: Latino Kids Face Increased Sugary Drink Ads



Spanish-language TV advertising for sugary drinks and energy shots increased by 44% over the past few years, according to a new report. The report, Sugary Drink FACTS 2014, updates the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity's 2011 research on sugary drinks and advertising to children. The report highlights industry progress but also indicates that companies still have a long way to go to improve their marketing practices and the nutritional quality of their youth-marketed products. This is particularly relevant to Latino youth, who consume more sugary drinks than their white peers, with 74% of Latinos having their first sugary drink before age 2. Some progress was made in marketing to Latino kids: On Spanish-language TV, Kraft Foods and Red Bull eliminated virtually ...

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Webinar: How to Bring Healthy School Fundraisers to Your School!



Looking for some great ways to get junk food out of schools? Join the Fit to Learn Webinar Series for some great tips on how to bring healthier fundraising alternatives to your school. Topic: Beyond the Bake Sale: Effective and Healthy Fundraising Strategies Date: Thursday, November 20, 2014 Time: 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. (CST) Register for this webinar here. This webinar has already occurred, view the taping of it ...

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A Call to Action: Georgia’s Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) 2014-2016



In order to provide Georgia's residents with improved opportunities for outdoor recreation, a taskforce including various outdoor recreation providers, crafted a clear and comprehensive plan, called Georgia's Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan  (SCORP) 2014-2016. This is Georgia's official policy to guide outdoor recreation, which enables the state to be eligible to receive funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The plan provides an overview of current trends for outdoor activity in Georgia as well as information on the economic impact of outdoor recreation on consumer spending. Many of the states' short-term challenges as well as the emerging situations in regards to outdoor recreation are detailed in the plan, along with measurable and defined ...

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Complete Streets Supporters Launch Crowdfunded Campaign For Protected Bike Lanes in Denver, Co.



Members of the Downtown Denver Partnership (DDP) recently launched an on-line campaign to raise $36,000 in funds towards a protected bike lane in downtown Denver. According to a Fox31 Denver news report, once built, this would be the fourth protected bike lane for downtown Denver, the latest one having just been installed in May 2014. Crowd source funded campaigns like this, which seek investments from corporations and individual sponsors are becoming more and more common. Last year, supporters from Memphis Tennessee succeeded in raising a total of $70,000 to build one of the country's most innovative bike projects. The idea is to get people vested with the success of this project early on, said DDP senior manager Aylene McCallum, in a PeopleForBikes blog. This way ...

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Council Members Set to Vote On Complete Streets Policy In Baton Rouge



Residents living in Baton Rouge, a city with a growing Latino population, may very soon see a Complete Streets policy put into effect. According to a news article from Business Report the city council will be discussing this as part of meeting on Wednesday, November 12, 2014. Then on November 25, 2014, the proposed ordinance will be read at a public meeting where the council will have its final vote. Since August 2014, groups like Bike Baton Rouge (Bike BR) and the Sustainable Transportation Action Committee (STAC), have been working to get support from locals by each gathering signatures as part of two online petitions. So far both groups have collected a combined total of over 1,000 signatures. “This petition is all about getting the concept of a complete street off the ...

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Healthy Education for Young Latinas



Carondelet Health Network, which currently operates Holy Cross Hospital, and funded by a 2010 donation from Dr. Harold and Mrs. Nancy Cunningham offers health classes to young Latino students. The classes are often given as teleconferences and involve multiple schools in Southern Arizona simultaneously, but the Desert Shadows class was in-person, reports Nogales International. During the class, Gwen Gallegos (a diabetes educator) sketched out the food and lifestyle choices that can significantly decrease the chances of the young girls developing diabetes, a chronic illness that can lead to a host of complications, including heart and kidney failure, amputations and blindness. “With kids, our whole goal is diabetes prevention and just making children aware of what they eat and ...

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Former Mayor Champions Unique Land Bridge For One of San Antonio’s Most Popular Parks



Former mayor of San Antonio, Phil Hardberger is working to bring a unique land bridge to one of San Antonio's premier parks, Hardberger Park. Because the park is actually split into two sections and divided by a high traffic street (Wurzbach Parkway), park goers can generally only get from one side to the other by car. Hardberger, as well as supporters from the Hardberger Conservancy would like to change this by building a wildlife land bridge, which  would provide a natural path for both humans and wildlife to cross from one side to the other. While land bridges are not too common in the US, they are much more common in Europe. “I believe it will be done. I believe it can be done,” Hardberger said in a news article from the Rivard Report. “It might take five years ...

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Afterschool Bike Clubs Empower Physical Activity, Leadership for Students in KC



Middle-school students in the FreeWheels for Kids program are learning what it means to be leaders for healthy change. By bringing bike clubs to various schools and facilities across Kansas City, and its growing Latino population, this nonprofit is helping kids have fun and stay active, while teaching them how to fix bikes, build nature trails, and to voice their desire for a bike friendly community with bike-friendly streets. EMERGENCE Awareness: Benjamin Alexander was already an avid bicyclist when he started working at a local community center, where he mentored kids in Kansas City, Kan., which is 28% Latino. “I rode my bike to work every day,” Alexander said. At the community center in spring 2011, he was fixing his bike when a middle-school student asked him how he ...

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Council Approves Complete Streets Ordinance For Knoxville, TN



Complete streets are on their way to becoming a reality for Knoxville, TN. On October 28, 2014, after nearly a year of planning and working to enact a citywide ordinance, champions for safer streets succeeded in getting the city council to approve the new policy! According to a WBIR.com news report, the new policy requires the city to "consider" alternative modes of transportation on the streets, such as walking, biking, and public transportation, when completing a project. Rather than mandate a "complete street," the ordinance requires that the city at least consider it. "The big benefit is that as we change as a city, as millennials move in and as older people may prefer not to drive, we see different types of users using roads," said Erin Gill, the director of the Office of ...

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