Fraternity’s initiatives encourage healthier men, families, communities

ALBANY — The brothers of the Gamma Omicron Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. have an important message for southwest Georgians, a message as simple as a walk in the park: Be kinder to your body.

Influential people in and around Albany will be wearing smart-looking black-on-gold and gold-on-black T-shirts with that logo in days to come, a reminder by the fraternity to “inform and inspire the people to adopt healthier lifestyles.”

“We have our own initiatives — ‘Be Kinder to Your Body,’ ‘Knowledge Is Power,’ ‘Eat to Live,’ ‘Sleep Well to Live,’ ‘Move to Improve’ — in which we challenge participants to meet the performance guidelines for the four healthy habits of the program,” Alpha Maurice Elliard, an adjunct professor at Albany State University, said this week as he delivered “Be Kinder to Your Body” T-shirts. “But when we see other groups in the community — like the LINKS Organization’s March health initiative — we join them and try to do what we can to promote healthier living.

“We’re involved with the Elevation Project, which I believe is a joint project including Phoebe (Putney Health System), black churches in the community and the Morehouse School of Medicine. We want to support others, but we benefit, too. Our involvement keeps us encouraged.”

Participants in the Alphas’ three-week Be Kind to Your Body “Healthy Men, Healthy Families, Healthy Communities” initiative, for example, recorded their weight and body mass index, maintained a daily tracking log and emailed it at the end of each week, and shared weekly updates on the health program’s progress.

Other initiatives included reading articles on nutrition and fitness (Knowledge Is Power), developing meal plans and tracking calories (Eat to Live), recording the numbers of steps, miles and minutes that are walked, run or biked (Move to Improve) and recording sleep hours and quality of sleep (Sleep Well to Live).

“We don’t try to overwhelm anyone,” Elliard said. “We keep it simple. A lot of participants have told us they’ve received strong benefits from being part of these programs.

“We don’t put pressure on people; trying to ‘sell’ health is not easy these days. Look at the people who decided to get COVID shots only when the ‘pay’ went up to $25. People are shopping these shots that can save their lives; you couldn’t get anyone to take a shot for $25 now. They’re out for the $100 shots.”

The Alphas have been holding their programs for the past six years. They plan to continue, noting that they’re not in line to receive the credit for their works. As something of an inspirational slogan, the fraternity brothers point to Psalm 37:5: “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you.”

Special Photo: Courtesy of Maurice Elliard