By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The YMCA of Chilton County is partnering with Scale Back Alabama to help Chilton County residents make a healthy start to 2018.

Scale Back Alabama is an opportunity for teams of two to focus on losing 10 pounds in nine weeks and qualify for prize drawings. The YMCA will serve as a public weigh in site for the program.

“We really want to be the leading voice of health and wellness for Chilton County and by offering this program, we feel like it will help the residents of Chilton County achieve their health and weight loss goals,” Allison Tubbs of the YMCA of Chilton County said.

Teams where each member lost at least 10 pounds are entered into drawings for cash prizes, ranging from $250 per member to $1,000 per member. Individuals who lost at least 10 pounds, regardless of how their teammate did, will be entered in to drawings for $100 cash prizes. Team members must be 18 or older and live or work in Alabama in order to participate. Registration online at scalebackalabama.com/join/ or at the Y during weigh in week is required.

Weigh in week will be Jan. 22 to 26 during the Y’s regular operating hours Monday through Friday. The Y is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Wednesday and Friday from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Teams will report to the front desk of the Y, where they will be taken to the weigh in area. Tubbs said weights are kept confidential, except for being reported to Scale Back Alabama as a part of the program.

Both team members must weigh in at the same time.

“They receive a weight tracker card where they can keep up with their own weight for the rest of the program,” Tubbs said.

Chilton County Scale Back Alabama participants will also receive a certificate for a free class at the Y. Participants will also have access to weekly health tips from Scale Back Alabama.

The only other required weigh in for the program is at the end of the nine weeks in April.

Tubbs said weekly weigh in would be available for Y members.

According to statistics compiled by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, Chilton County has a 36 percent obesity rate.

“That is higher than the overall state average, so we know there is a need,” Tubbs said.