Press Release

For Immediate Release
Contact: Kaylyn Dines
(973) 972-7276

UMDNJ and Kean University Launch Healthy Together Program
Celebrate a Healthy Halloween at Kean University

10/21/05—Kean University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) will launch Healthy Together, a joint campaign to combat childhood obesity, with a free Healthy Halloween festival for all ages on Sunday, October 30, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Kean University in Union.

"I'm pleased to be introducing this effort with a Halloween festival," said Kean President Dawood Farahi. "As children and families are already focused on coming together and sharing a good time on Halloween - along with consumption of sometimes less-than-healthy food - we felt that a festival celebrating wholesome snack choices, vigorous physical and mental challenges and fun-filled facts on getting fit would be the most fitting way to begin our campaign."

"As leaders in education, we have a responsibility to help the members of our communities to learn how to enjoy long and healthy lives," said Dr. John Petillo, UMDNJ president. "Through Healthy Together, we hope to educate about this disease through gearing specific events and programs toward the three distinct groups of children and parents, adolescents and adults, and senior citizens."

The partnership follows the spirit and letter of Senate Resolution 71 sponsored by Sen. Leonard T. Connors Jr. (R-9). Adopted this summer, it urges institutions of higher learning to create educational programs on obesity. Through community outreach programs such as Healthy Halloween, as well as corresponding academic initiatives, quarterly newsletters, a Web site, brochures, seminars, advertising and many more initiatives, UMDNJ and Kean will address the causes of obesity, its chronic and complex nature, prevention measures, and treatment approaches.

The afternoon filled with Halloween fun and learning will start with a registration at Wilkins Theatre from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. Families will have the opportunity to participate in costume and pumpkin-decorating contests and hay rides, as well as play games and win great prizes at themed locations, such as the Harry Potter-inspired world of wizards, Dracula’s haunted mansion, a spooky Frankenstein science laboratory, the fanciful land of witches and princesses and a Legend of Sleepy Hollow pumpkin patch.

Kean University is located at 1000 Morris Avenue in Union.