By Dr. TONY SUN
UnitedHealthcare of Kansas

Halloween can be scary. Ghosts, ghouls and goblins abound, but the most frightening part of Halloween might be how many calories our children bring home in their trick-or-treat bags.

The candy in an average trick-or-treat bag can contain as much as 7,000 calories, according to Dr. Donna Arnett at the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s school of public health, and all that candy can lead to tooth decay and a lot of extra pounds for the entire family.

What’s a health-conscious parent to do without ruining one of the most kid-friendly celebrations of the year?

Instead of candy, opt for healthier or non-food alternatives. Candy is fun, but healthy food can be as well. Making small oranges, popcorn balls or fruit cups with pumpkin faces drawn on them can encourage healthier eating while still getting into the Halloween spirit. Give trick-or-treaters dried fruit, fruit leathers, crackers or trail mix.

Or, if you want to avoid giving out candy or snack foods altogether, give small toys, stickers, temporary tattoos, pencils, Halloween erasers or glow-sticks. Kids receive plenty of candy on Halloween and will enjoy being surprised with the “extras” they gather while trick-or-treating.

Get out and exercise. Candy consumption certainly increases on and around Halloween, but so does walking. Fitbit recently analyzed its data and found the average user walked an additional 2,750 steps on Halloween. While those extra steps won’t cancel out all those candy bars you ate, the added walking and exercise can help you control your weight and improve your health.

Take family walks around the neighborhood before Halloween to plan your trick-or-treating route. The additional movement can benefit the whole family.

Fill your little goblins’ tummies with healthy food before they hit their candy stash. Eating a healthy dinner before trick-or-treating will help ensure your kids are properly fueled and less tempted to snack their way around the neighborhood. Plus, for safety you should save your candy until you get home to screen for anything potentially hazardous.

If you return home and your family has more candy than they should eat, search online at www.halloweencandybyback.com for a local buy back or candy donation program. Call first for each location’s program details.

This Halloween, have fun dressing up and eating a few treats, but balance the usual indulgence with making healthier choices.

Dr. Tony Sun is a Senior Medical Director for UnitedHealthcare of Kansas.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

It’s the Ram National Circuit Finals of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in Guthrie, Oklahoma. The rodeo announcer is on horseback, in the arena. This nationally-recognized rodeo announcer hails from rural Kansas.

Scott Grover is this well-known rodeo announcer who does his announcing while on horseback in the arena. Scott grew up in north central Kansas near the Washington County town of Morrowville.

“When I was little, my folks took me to a rodeo,” Scott said. “I fell in love with the idea of the cowboy.”

The pastor of his dad’s Methodist church was also interested in rodeo and subscribed to the Pro Rodeo Sports News. When the pastor was done reading each issue, he would pass it along to Scott. Scott was just a kid but he read it with great interest.

“When I was in the third grade, I might not have been able to tell you about the history that we were supposed to be studying, but I could tell you who was in the top 15 standings in pro rodeo,” Scott said. In high school, he was active in FFA where he polished his public speaking skills.

Scott modestly downplayed his own abilities as a rodeo competitor, but he knew he wanted to continue to be involved. He attended a Nebraska community college which hosted a collegiate rodeo. He asked the rodeo manager for a job as an announcer. “She told me that they already had an announcer,” Scott said. “The next week, that announcer got sick on Saturday night and I was pressed into service. Sunday morning, I had a job.”

This was the break that Scott needed to get a start in the business. He did well and continued to announce rodeos while attending Kansas State where he got a degree in agricultural education. For four years, he taught high school agriculture during the school year and announced rodeos during the summers. Then the time had come to go out on his own to become a full-time rodeo announcer.

Today, Scott and his wife live near Camden Point, Missouri with a three-year old son and a 1-½ year old daughter. Their home is not far from the Kansas City airport, which is important. Scott travels and announces rodeos from New York to California and from Canada to Texas. He also hosts PBR Live (Professional Bull Riders) and other rodeo-related media and on-line communications.

Unlike most rodeo announcers who announce the rodeo from a viewing stand up high, Scott chooses to do his announcing on horseback inside the arena, using a wireless microphone. That puts him in a great position to describe the action, but it does require an agile mind and a well-trained horse.

“I saw a guy at Abilene announce the rodeo horseback and fell in love with the idea,” Scott said. “It gets you close to the crowd. I’m right in the middle of the action.”

Scott’s opening announcements also vary from location to location. “I’m not a great memorizer,” Scott said. “I find I do better if I can just come out and talk from the heart.” This also provides him the flexibility to tailor his comments to the location, the audience, and the events of the day.

His enthusiasm for the sport of rodeo comes naturally. “I’m just a fan of the sport,” Scott said. “I love rodeo and I love talking about it.”

Scott worked his way up through the ranks of announcers. In 2014, he was selected as an announcer for the PRCA Ram National Circuit Finals. That’s quite an accomplishment for a young man from the rural community of Morrowville, population 155 people. Now, that’s rural.

“I’m not curing cancer here,” Scott said with humility. “I just want to make somebody smile and love the sport half as much as I do.”

It’s time to leave the Ram National Circuit Finals where Scott Grover is announcing the rodeo on horseback. We salute Scott Grover for making a difference by advancing his way up through the profession. For Scott, we can literally say: this is not his first rodeo.

It’s anniversary time in my family. Monday was my parents’ wedding anniversary, and my husband and I celebrated our anniversary two weeks ago. My parents’ marriage is still going strong after 62 years together. On the other hand, Doug and I have been married for 9 years, equaling the 9 years I spent as a single parent after my first marriage ended.

In our society, most people want to get married– and there is considerable research evidence that marriage has a range of benefits. But too often the joy turns sour, and nearly half of marriages end in divorce.

Dr. Karl Pillemer, a professor of human development in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, interviewed 700 long-married older Americans for their advice about finding a life partner and staying married. You can read more about his research at https://legacyproject.human.cornell.edu/.
Here are three lessons Dr Pillemer learned from the elders for finding a spouse and staying together as reported in his online article at www.nextavenue.org:

1. Marry Someone a Lot Like You
Pillimer and his research team asked hundreds of elders what is most important for a long and happy marriage and their advice was just about unanimous: Opposites may attract, but they don’t make for great and lasting marriages.

Based on their long experiences, the elders’ first lesson is this: You are much more likely to have a satisfying marriage for a lifetime when you and your mate are fundamentally similar. And the most important thing to look for is similarity in your core values.

Take Emma Sylvester, who at 87 has been married for 58 years. She said: “I didn’t know it when I got married, but in retrospect I know it’s important to have the same basic values.”

Arguments emerge over apparently trivial issues, the elders told us, because they really reflect underlying values. Whether the wife purchases an expensive golf club or the husband a new electronic toy is not the core issue in a spat, but rather the deeper attitude toward what money means and whether the financial interests of the couple are more important than indulging individual wants.

The elders urge people in a serious relationship to ask the question: Do we believe the same things in life are important?

2. Never Expect Your Partner to Change After Marriage
What about taking a leap of faith on the assumption that you can change your partner after you’re married? The elders were as clear about this possibility as can be: Forget about it.

According to them, entering into a marriage with the goal of changing one’s partner is a fool’s errand.
Rosie Eberle, 80 and happily married for 56 years, had a blunt comment to make about entering into a marriage expecting to change one’s partner: “It’s just plain stupid.”

She went on: “Don’t marry someone and then think, ‘Oh, well he’ll change.’ Or ‘I’m going to change him.’ Believe me, it doesn’t happen. But people get real stubborn and believe a person will change later on, which never works.”

3. Friendship Is As Important As Love
When asked the question: “What’s the secret to a long, happy marriage such as yours?” a common answer from people in long marriages was: “I married my best friend.” Similarly, those whose marriages did not succeed often said: “Well, we were good at love, but we never learned how to be friends.”

This response sounds peculiar, given that in this society we see friends and spouses as two separate social categories that have different functions. In contrast, the elders say the special qualities of friendship are exactly what you want in your marriage.

We typically look forward to being with friends, we relish their company, we relax with them, we share common interests and we talk openly. What the elders suggest is that you look for the qualities of a friend — the capacity to comfortably “hang out” — in the person you choose to marry. As one 87-year-old said: “Think back to the playground when you were a child. Your spouse should be like the other kid you would most like to play with!”

According to the elders, all marriages undergo a transition from the initial thrill of romance to stages when other things become as or more significant. After being swept off one’s feet by true love, the elders caution you to ask “What’s next?” Will you wake up next to the same person for five or six decades and still find a person you like as well as love?

Marriage will probably never go out of style in our culture. But after the bouquet is thrown and the last grain of rice is swept up, these tips from those who have experienced decades of marriage can help us make our unions last.

Linda K. Beech is Cottonwood District Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.