[Music starts…]
>> NARRATOR: On October 8th, 2012, the 9th annual Champions of Health Gala was held at
the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, benefitting the Oklahoma
Caring Foundation and honoring local organizations that are health leaders in the community.
>> TED HAYNES: “We all have a vested interest in the public health, and that’s really
the reason this event was created in the first place, by Ron King, when he was the president
of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oklahoma.”
>> NARRATOR: Over 530 people attended, and had the opportunity to hear the evening’s
keynote speaker - Magic Johnson.
>> TED HAYNES: “Tonight, our table sponsors, ticket sales, and silent auction proceeds
all benefit the Oklahoma Caring Foundation, which is a not-for-profit organization that
provides Oklahoma children with immunizations at no charge.”
>> CHRISTINA ECKERT: “These vans, they go out into the community, and they make sure
that kids get their vaccines, which makes for a healthier community for all of us. It
improves the state immunization rate.”
>> MAGIC JOHNSON: “When you think about 100,000 young people, 200,000 shots…I mean,
it’s just amazing…you’re saving a lot of lives.”
>> TERRY CLINE: “It’s a great honor to be here and come together to celebrate the
great accomplishments of people who have committed their lives to shaping our future, and shaping
our health.”
>> STEPHANY PARKER: “The Eagle Adventure program focuses on children in grades one
through three, to provide a vision of hope that type two diabetes can be prevented, and
we encourage children to help make choices in the grocery store and to do activities
with family members. So it’s not just the child being physically active, but also encouraging
children to be physically active with family members too. The Eagle Book series are an
amazing series of books that tell the story of how type 2 diabetes can be prevented, but
we also thought it was important to bring these stories to life. So, what we did, we
started off by developing a play. And, the play is the way we bring the stories to the
children in an animated format, and that’s where we get their interest…and that’s
where they are really captivated and just become very interested in learning how to
eat more healthy. We’ve put our hearts into it, we’ve put our families into it, and
we are just tremendously thrilled to receive this amazing honor. It’s so amazing.”
>> MAGIC JOHNSON: “You allow these young people…as they are growing up poor, but
they won’t have poor dreams, because you allow them to live and be healthy.”
[Music ends]
