“Lighten Up Iowa” has extended the deadline for communities to apply for grants to implement a weight-loss program. Kim Nanke is the coordinator of Lighten Up Iowa. She says the 500 dollar mini-grants are for communities or counties to promote the program to people. Or she says the money can help offset the entry fee to join Lighten Up Iowa in 2006. Under the program, teams are formed and they look to lose weight by changing their lifestyles over a five-month period. Nanke says they hope the grants will get more people involved. She says they had great success last year going into the communities of Fort Dodge, Newton, Humboldt, Dakota City and Webster City. She says that made them decided to offer the mini-grants to help try and get more people involved. Nanke says the new deadline is the end of this week. She says the application has to be postmarked by November 4th (Friday). You can go on-line atwww.lightenupiowa.org to get an application for the grant. Nanke says they’ll notify the winners of the grant by November 15th. Nanke says a record 19-thousand-231 people took part in the program in 2005 and they look for even more when the new program starts January 18.
