For most people, watching TV, sending e-mails from cell phones, browsing the Internet and playing video games during the day are routine. But these habits are also unhealthy because time spent in front of a screen is a leading cause of obesity in adults and children.

Through grants funded by The Rapides Foundation, Central Louisiana organizations, communities and schools are stepping away from screens for one week and sponsoring healthy activities for adults and children.

A woman with smoking-related lung disease fears for her life. A young boy longs for the company of his grandpa. A man who lost most of his jaw to throat cancer knows he has to live this way for the rest of his life.

These are just a few of the people to be featured in The Rapides Foundation’s “Faces of Tobacco,” a new campaign that highlights real people who have been affected by tobacco use. The campaign, which runs from February through November, is designed to demonstrate the far-reaching effects of tobacco use.

Twenty Central Louisiana professionals graduated on Nov. 19 from Cenla Boardbuilders, a Community Development Works program that trains emerging leaders to become active in their communities as members of nonprofit Boards of Directors.
Community Development Works is a program funded by The Rapides Foundation.

The Rapides Foundation’s board of trustees awarded approximately $800,000 in grants to fund evidence-based physical fitness and healthy eating programs in nine Central Louisiana public school districts.