Dear Editor:

On Sunday, Debbie Quinn, Fairhope City Council president, wrote an editorial regarding the obesity epidemic and how it required “quick action and cooperation” with states, cities and towns by making decisions that are good for families. She advocates Fairhope “reassess how we encourage a more healthy community.”  Quite frankly I am tired of elected officials deciding what is best for the citizenry and then asking the citizens to pay for it.

Fairhope, through the Recreation Department,  provides adult and  youth services in the community which include organized team sports beginning at  elementary-school age up to high school in soccer, t-ball, baseball, fast-pitch and slow-pitch softball, football, basketball and swimming.  The Recreation Department also has tennis courts, a walking track, a new pool (which this summer has a 240-member swim team comprised of only children), a disk golf course, a new skateboard park (which is seldom used) and will open a new exercise facility which also provides exercise machines, track, jazzercise and other classes.  Quail Creek, the Municipal golf course, provides an outlet for adults and children, as well. A non-profit society obtained funds (with a Federal Grant) and built a bike path/ walkway from Highway 90 at I-10 to Point Clear.  

There are numerous churches in the area which provide league sports, cheerleading and open basketball and exercise facilities.  Private and non-profit enterprises in this area include the YMCA, the Wellness Center, the Grand Hotel Spa, Babb’s Fitness, Fairhope Fitness, Integrated Fitness, Curves of Fairhope, McConnell Fitness, the Rock Creek facility and pool, the Homestead pool and exercise room. The kids also have the Fairhope Yacht Club for sailing lessons and other activities.

The children attend local schools from August to May and physical education classes are provided in the schools.

We have heard “our economy is the worst since the Great Depression.”  It is interesting to note that Fairhope has no funds of its own; it obtains its funds from the citizens of Fairhope, Baldwin County, the state of Alabama, and the USA.  Yet, our elected officials are continually trying to figure out ways to spend our money and intrude on our lives.

As an owner of a fitness/health management facility I have had experience with individuals seeking good health and find that there are more than enough facilities to provide the outlet to prevent obesity; it is the individual that must make the decision to be fit and eat correctly.  We don’t need the city, state, county or federal government spending our money to attempt to coerce individuals into the “community’s idea” of what is best for the them. The only control over individuals’ obesity problems is to control what goes in their mouths and make them exercise—which no governmental agency has the authority to do.

The cure to obesity and attainment of good health are decisions to be made by the individual and the parents of their children.  

Beverly Dykes

Fairhope