MASON CITY – Even as one progressive North Iowa community, Decorah, has bowed out of the controversial Blue Zones program, Mason City kids were slapped this week with a policy banning yummy treats from being brought to school for birthdays and celebrations.
The new school policy bucks decades of tradition where kids bring a cupcake or other goodie to school to share with their classmates on their special day.
Mason City School Superintendent Anita Micich did not immediately reply to questions on the new policy.
The Blue Zones project is spearheaded by a behemoth insurance company named Wellmark, and championed by Mason City Mayor Eric Bookmeyer, Scott Tornquist, Janet Solberg and Travis Hickey as well as Alex Kuhn, John Lee and Jean Marinos. The group has called the Blue Zones designation in Mason City one of its greatest achievements, even though no one knows how much it is costing Mason City taxpayers.
One Mason City resident called the new school policy “a bad joke on our kids” and went on to say “our Mayor, Eric Bookmeyer denies himself nothing, stuffs himself until he is blue in the face, and then brings the Blue Zone to town and tells the rest of us how to think, eat, drink, and live. Welcome to 1984, Mason City.”
Lots of schools around the state have done away with birthday treats. This has been going on for years, just finally reaching Mason City. Obesity is a real problem, so is smoking. Way too much of our healthcare costs are driven by obesity and smoking. Insurance premiums for obese people and smokers should be at least double. I know of several business people who won’t hire smokers or obese people because of their lack of productivity. The smokers burn up an extra hour a day and the obese ones are dragging by 2 pm.
@Hacker-you forgot drugs and alcohol. Might as well hit them all.
Can someone tell me if this blue zones has had a positive impact on anyone personally? All I’ve heard is negativity about it!
This is what happens when the librals are allowed to take over. It is just a NANNY country now where they have to control every aspect of our lives. It stats with the children. Train them and later they will all fall in line with the party theme.
So? You wanna control sick peoples lives be restricting cannabis. How much more of a nanny can you get!
@drugger-what has that got to do with this article?? If you don’t like the law, elect the people that will change it for you. Oh, that’s right, felon’s can’t vote.
Wow!! Talk about ridiculous!!! Look out for that 1 cupcake or 1 cookie!! It might make you obese!! I also highly doubt a student passing out treats has ANY negative effects on student performance. if anything, it will HELP! Schools cutting out birthday treats, recess, snacks, Christmas, Valentines Day, and everything else! What a JOKE!!!! Those things were all part of school that made it fun being a kid!! I long for the days where we could all get together and play and when we got thirsty we all drank from the same garden hose. How about mom making us Kool Aid while we played in the back yard withOUT having a parent organize everything for us! No travel teams…..just a bunch of kids playing together in driveways, parks, diamonds, fields, and backyards. If we had a conflict we would take care of it ourselves and it would be over. No Twitter, no Facebook, no Skype….none of it. Those days of innocence, privacy, and surprise are as lost as the Iowa Hawkeye Football team. I can’t believe all the nonsense that is being passed down to schools these days. Having treats in school is something all kids love to have!
Good bye Keebler Elves, we’re all going to miss you…
Unbelievable!!! I read all the blogs on obesity, health food, 1984 etc. It’s just that on that one day of the year, that is your special day, it should be ok to have a special treat. One cupcake– not a dozen, a piece of cake– not the entire cake.. Bookmeyer has never met a treat he didn’t like and at every turn,even food for kids, is trying to rule this city with an iron fist. This s……t has to stop!
Have that treat at home. Make it a special day at home,
.
This Blue Zone is the biggest waste of the tax payers money! I wonder if the city council are going to look at there kids and grand kids and tell them sorry no ice cream or cake for your birthday. Lets have carrots and celery and a cold glass of water and hmm don’t forget the broccoli
Snack foods in moderation are completely acceptable. Due to safety and food regulations, parents can no longer bring home baked goods like we did when I was in elementary school as they are not sealed in a safe package. The pop machines at MCHS have been replaced with Aquafina water. The schools that are lucky enough to have vending machines, have rice cakes and crackers in them. We have an obesity problem partially due to the fact of how “obese” is defined by the American Medical Assoc. If you don’t have a flat stomach, you are obese… (and before you go thinking I’m a fatty writing this while eating cupcakes, I am most definitely not in the obese category) I feed my children hamburgers, spaghetti, etc. and we have dessert after supper. My kids are not obese as they take things in moderation, have two parents actively engaged in their life, and are not fed just to keep them happy. I feel that the school has taken over in many areas where it is my job to teach my children certain skills (i.e. healthy eating, sex ed., etc.) Unfortunately, there are sooo many parents in today’s world who completely fail to properly parent their children someone has to step in or these kids would be left to learn everything at school or figure it out on their own. I feel that as much as junk food can be used in moderation, health food can also be used in moderation. If the schools choose to move to strict health food, they will be taking a sack lunch every day.
Oink Oink. Pass the mashed potatoes and gravy please.
Does this mean the end to trick or treat night, Oh no……
How wonderful, the child can have a day being the “teacher’s helper”… meaning, he/she can be put to WORK on their special day… how special is that? LOL
Heaven forbid the schools try to do something to address childhood obesity! Of course, we don’t have any overweight or obese children in Mason City schools, so there’s no need to address the problem. We should just add ice cream and cookie bars in every classroom, that should satisfy the commenters here. It’s all about creating “fun” for the kiddies!
Last time I checked, schools were not responsible for cracking that problem. Last time I checked they were funded by taxpayer dollars to teach our children and feed them a sensible lunch if we so choose.
You’re missing the point. Obesity is a key driver of chronic disease and costs the U.S. billions in healthcare expenditures each year. Childhood obesity is a significant problem in Mason City and is getting worse, so why not take steps to try to reduce the incidence of it? Anyobdy getting worked up about the schools discouraging cakes and cupcakes should be embarrassed. If it’s that important to you then feed your kids junk before and after school.
Well then we can have them do pushups and situps and run the mile at recess give me a break this starts with the parents big deal if the kid wants to bring fruit snacks for his or her birthday. no more may baskets no more easter bunny no more valentines with candy. If the parents would spend time with there kids and not sit them in front of video games and tv and watched what they eat then we wouldn’t have this problem.
“Same” is right on. Schools aren’t there to raise children. They are there to teach. Parents should raise their children. @fsutall What are you going to do when the government tells you what you can feed your kid without being brought up on abuse charges. This is the direction it is headed.
There is no more liberal place in the world than a public school. This kind of fluff is what you get.
Next they will outlaw sack lunches because the child, if they pack it themselves, will get the “good stuff” (the hi-c juice and chips) while the rest of the classmates eat school lunches.
@Allison, this has already happened in many schools nation wide, it is a shame.
What a nanny state we have become as a country. People telling you what to eat, what to buy, how to have fun, what to watch. Big Brother is here and unfortunately here to stay. I wish liberal people would just worry about taking care of themselves for a change.
This is not “liberals”, that is in your mind. It is a corporate agenda. We have a corporate government today in large part due to republicans. This is a large insurance company in cahoots with your local GOP mayor.
This is one of those instances where the big corporate agenda and liberals are on the same side. The corporate agenda would have folded if some well intentioned liberals didn’t prop it up.
Schools are for learning, not for feeding kids crap. Treats from home have no place at school and birthdays are blown way out of proportion. Use your birthday to honor your parents not yourself. Kids don’t need recognition at school. BTW, my greatnephew nearly died in kindergarten because a mom brought treats into the classroom after being told it was a no snack zone. He has a severe peanut allergy and the stupid woman put a peanut butter cookie on each desk while the kids were at lunch.
Its not just at the schools that the blue zones is affecting. Parks and Rec in Mason City since this summer, the parents are not allowed to bring snacks after the game for the team. Its frustrating because, yeah I get it, nobody needs a 500 calorie cupcake when the kid burned off 200 calories during a game for 6 year olds, but a sensible snack and water? Blue zones is supposed to be focused around simple, small steps, flexibility, and the city has taken it way too far. Rather than say to general population “be smart about it” they just take it away for all…
You need to talk to Brian Pauly. He’ll tell you why he really stopped the treats. It would have happened regardless of Blue Zones.
You don’t know the half of it. The gal they pulled down from Albert Lea to help them set it up is a smoker. She got the Blue Zones job in Albert Lea with no experience at all. A government grant was given for health purposes and instead of hiring someone from the outside to administer it the county nurse and county officials told a National temp agency they wanted them to hire this gal. She was on the city council and her husband ran the chamber. She gave out something like $150,000 and her cut was over $60,000. $90k for the program the rest to her.
Again, no experience and a smoker. There was a big deal about it a few years back on albertlea.com.
Our mayor Bookie is a smoker also.
Are you freakin’ kidding me…NO treats on birthdays! What a farce! Waste of time and money!
Do they still have soda machines in these schools?
What a farce this Blue Zone is. A total waste of time and money.
Well, what happened here is that a large corporation used your ego to fund it’s agenda. It used Blue Zones to tell you that you were special. A winner of Blue Zones! A CHOSEN city.
You said, ooooh really? We ARE really special and we will help you carry out the corporations agenda and we will even pay for it!
Wellmark walks away and says, THAT’S how you do bidness!
Eloquent and well-said. We got bamboozled by a giant INSURANCE company, and we all know that most INSURANCE companies and the PEOPLE THAT SELL IT want nothing more than YOUR MONEY. Right, Matt Dodge and Janet Solberg?
Is it true that JANET SOLBERG tried to take over all the insurance business from the city after she got on the council? Did she really come to city hall with her boss and demand all the insurance policies and rates? Is that unethical?
I heard about that, and how JANET SOLBERG the insurance salesman tried to force poor people in Mason City to buy renter’s insurance. Is this woman totally disconnected from reality or is she just as cold and calloused as they say?
@steel panther…I agree totally. Wellmark is a huge national corporation, do you think for one second that they have you the common citizen’s best interest in mind. Not one bit. The reasoning behind blue zone is simple….lets bamboozle simpleton city governments to buy into this program. If we can get people to live a supposed healthier lifestyle they will go to the doctor or hospital less and less because they are healthier and we “wellmark” wont have so much money to pay in claims. It saves wellmark money in the long run, and costs we the taxpayer everyday to fund the program.
If the city wants to be serious about it then go all in….make all the fast food joints close down, give a tax break to all those who bike or walk to work, have the grocery stores eliminate all the “little Debbie” type snacks. If the city can accomplish that then I will be in favor of blue zones…….also close down anybody selling cigs, booze, mountain dew, etc.
Its never going to happen and my prediction is blue zones will go down as a big of failure this city has every seen.
Yes, you are correct “common sense man”! One of two things will happen as far as alcohol and cigs are concerned; #1 an additional tax on those items, which I suppose would help fund the blue zone or #2 alcohol & cigs WILL BE banned in River City. That’s right ~ you will have to drive some place else to make those purchases. Wonder which one they’ll choose?
And I’m wondering why a company in Mason City pledged $45k to Blue Zones, but refused to provide YMCA memberships for its employees!?! Yes, really!
2+2=5
Not all blame can be forced on the mayor (though he is the root of it). The school administers could take a stand.
Wow!! That pretty much sums it up. Wow!!
Thanks Mayor for sucking the fun out the lives of our children, just as you suck booze from your wife’s fine crystal cups. Maybe you should go back to Decorah, your college town, and learn how crappy blue zones really are.