HUNTINGTON -- Since the Miss America pageant in January, Kayla Lynam has spent only four nights at home.

The 21-year-old Miss West Virginia has been traveling the state with a clear mission. She stops at two or three schools a day to talk to kids about healthy habits, and the importance of incorporating nutrition and exercise into their lives.

On Tuesday, April 28, Lynam will be among several speakers planned for the "Healthy Kids, Healthy Families" forum at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena. The purpose of the event is to explore the childhood obesity problem in West Virginia and the region, as well as possible solutions and local efforts to encourage healthier lifestyles and exercise. It will be from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

The forum will be hosted by The Herald-Dispatch in conjunction with WSAZ NewsChannel 3, the Cabell-Huntington Health Department, United Way of the River Cities, Cabell County Schools and the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.

Those who attend will hear from Lynam and Dr. William Neal of West Virginia University and Dr. Tom Dannals of Huntington. The forum will include a panel discussion on local initiatives and challenges.

Neal has headed a project that screened more than 26,000 state fifth-graders over the past 11 years, determining that 47 percent of them are overweight. Dannals, a family physician in Huntington, has poured countless hours into organizing projects to generate enthusiasm for fitness in the Huntington area.

WVU's CARDIAC Project (it stands for Coronary Artery Risk Detection in Appalachian Communities) is completed with the help of local colleges, Neal said. Fifth-graders in every county participate, but only those who are given parental permission, which is about half the fifth-graders in the state.

The students give a short health history, have their height and weight measured and blood pressure tested, and get a lipid profile, which is a group of blood tests that determines risk of coronary heart disease.

"We screen children for a rash on the back of the neck called acanthosis nigricans, a hyper pigmented, raised rash on the back of the neck that occurs in children and adults who are obese and have insulin resistance," Neal said. "They have pre-diabetic condition, and when that rash is present, we test for blood sugar and insulin levels."

What he's found is that the weight of 47 percent of the fifth-graders tested in West Virginia are at the 85th percentile or above, which is considered overweight. Twenty-seven percent are above 95th percentile, which is considered obese, and 6 percent are morbidly obese, Neal said.

There are many factors that have contributed to the problem of overweight children, he said.

Ultimately, people eat more calories than they burn these days. The reasons could be everything from the fact that people have to drive to get everywhere rather than walk, to the fact that there's a widespread belief that caloric-dense foods are cheaper than healthy ones such as fruits and vegetables. That's difficult to document though, Neal said.

"A lot comes down to learned behaviors," Neal said. "Women are in the job market, not home preparing meals. Family gardens are less common than they used to be. Young adults don't know how to prepare a healthy or a fresh meal and don't sit at the table and have a family meal."

In the rural areas of the state, where historically there have been a lot of farms, many people still eat the traditional, high-calorie foods but they're not doing the physical labor of farming, he said.

Meanwhile, "Most children say they don't like green vegetables and won't eat them," Neal said. "We try to counsel them and know that if you can get children to eat green vegetables before 3 years of age, they'll stick with it. If they don't get them before 3, it's hard to get them to do it."

The second part of the CARDIAC Project has been coming up with intervention programs throughout the state to help kids and families change their lifestyles, including afterschool programs and the like.

Last year, the CARDIAC Project hosted Camp NEW You at WVU, where students come for two weeks and stay in the dorms and learn from counselors -- often grad students in physiology, nutrition or physical education -- about having a healthy lifestyle. It's for students 11 to 14 who are in the 85th percentile or above.

"It takes a major commitment on the part of parents," Neal said. "They stay overnight one weekend, and there are sessions on how to provide better nutrition for families and overcome inhibitors to healthy lifestyles."

It costs $2,800 per child, covered by the Public Employee Insurance Agency and most of the state's insurance companies, Neal said.

Follow-up for the program involves counselors getting in touch with the kids every two weeks by phone or e-mail, and two more weekend get-togethers throughout the year at state parks. After the first three months, the average weight loss among the children was 51/2 pounds, and that's the most recent data available, he said.

Neal said Marshall is working on getting a Camp NEW You ready for 2010.

"It's an amazing dynamic. There's a feeling like this can't end in June," Neal said. "The kids get to know each other and become friends. They don't stand out because they're all overweight. ... It's gone very well.

"One of the things that's not what I would have expected is that the parents themselves, who come from a cross section of society, really did not know themselves how to have a healthy lifestyle in their families."

Another component of the project is data-tracking to come up with trends, which are starting to show some hope, Neal said. In recent years, the CARDIAC Project also has started doing body mass index testing, based on height and weight, of kindergartners and second-graders so that researchers can compare results at different periods of growth, he added.

Dannals has organized the Tri-State Triathlon and Marshall University Marathon in Huntington as part of his efforts to get people to exercise, and have fun with it, which he thinks is the best way to fight obesity.

While diet is important also, two people who eat the same thing can have completely different fitness levels based on how much exercise they get.

He pointed out that kids and adults sit at the same dinner table and eat similar food, but if the child is going to soccer practice, he or she will be much better off.

Lynam, who is from Short Gap, W.Va., in Mineral County, said she tries to emphasize both nutrition and exercise, and she too said exercise needs to be fun for anyone to stick with it.

She played soccer for 12 years in school and ran track. She currently is certified as a group exercise instructor and has a second certification in kickboxing.

"That's a blast for me -- a great way to meet people, help people and use a passion of mine to help others," she said. "I teach kickboxing, Pilates and spinning.

"I always reinforce that the things they're doing right now for fun are exercise," she said. "The Wii Fit, the sports they play, running around on the playground -- they do it because they want to do it, but it's all exercise.

"Keep that mindset -- find something that you love to do and want to do, and later on you can do it as exercise and it will be fun."

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A "Healthy Kids, Healthy Families" forum is planned for Tuesday, April 28, at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena. The purpose of the event is to explore the childhood obesity problem in West Virginia and the region, as well as possible solutions and local efforts to encourage healthier lifestyles and exercise. It will be from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

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