According to the American Diabetes Association, American Indian youth are two times more likely to have diabetes than other youth.
In an effort to decrease the rate of juvenile diabetes in the Shivwits Band of Paiute Indians, the Red Rock Rotary Club of Southern Utah has been renovating a park on the Shivwits Reservation.
Club members hope the park will become a place where youth there can exercise and become more physically active.
Mike Empey is on the board of the rotary club and in charge of international service. He said the club has helped organizations and schools around the world.
“The last couple of years we’ve decided to focus a little more locally because of the need for this old playground to be renovated and be more usable for the children,” Empey said.
Members of the rotary club, Dixie State University and the Shivwits band are working together to clear weeds and brush from the playground which is covered in those weeds sometimes called goatheads or stickers.
“That playground is just covered with those puncture weeds. It’s not a good play situation,” Empey said “If you were to slide off the slide prior to the cleanup, you would have come away with your legs and behind full of puncture burrs. So we’ve enjoyed being able to clean that up and make it a lot more usable.”
The Shivwits area is often a place where other Paiute bands gather.
“I would like to be there on a day when kids from all of those bands are using the playground,” Empey said. “Even more when the playground is covered and they can make better use of it in bad weather.”
The group is working to eventually build a large pavilion to cover the playground.