Columnist Susan Snyder: Foundation deserves 1,000 thanks

Friday, Nov. 21, 2003 | 8:29 a.m.

Some lucky Nevadan will receive some new wheels next week courtesy of Nevada's National Wheelchair Foundation chapter.

The local chapter will bestow its 1,000th wheelchair on a resident whose identity is being kept secret until the 1 p.m. presentation Tuesday at the North Las Vegas Community Outreach Center.

The Nevada chapter was created in 2001 by Don Williams, president of the Auto Collections at Imperial Palace. The group's goal is to provide independence, dignity and hope by giving away wheelchairs to 10,000 Nevadans who otherwise couldn't afford them.

The community center is near the corner of Bruce Street and Lake Mead Boulevard. For more information on the program, call 794-3180 or (800) 851-3706. Or log onto www.WheelchairsforNevada.org.

The nation's children are receiving more wheels -- the kind attached to bicycles -- than ever. But fewer are actually riding bikes, according to a report published Monday in the Washington Post.

Two days later the NewScientist.com news service issued a report that says one in seven U.S. schoolchildren has three or more risk factors considered precursors to heart disease.

Do you see something wrong with this picture?

Bill Wilkinson, of the National Center for Bicycling and Walking, told the Post kids are pedaling less because parents are afraid to let them go out alone and because children's leisure activities are more likely to be organized. Most, he said, are "never out of direct supervision of an adult."

So much for building independence.

The University of North Carolina study quoted by New Scientist said risk factors documented in 8- to 17-year-olds included high blood pressure, obesity and low levels of "good" cholesterol.

The picture we're painting for children is pretty clear: Independence and healthy daily routines that include exercise, such as bike-riding to soccer practice, aren't as important as living up to some myth of personal safety.

Yes, we have a high pedestrian fatality rate in the Las Vegas Valley. But far more of us will die of obesity, heart disease and the related maladies than ever will be hit by cars or abducted by the much-feared ominous stranger.

Our kids are learning to make trade-offs. Are they the right ones?

A recent poll says 46 percent of teenage girls say they have "never considered" a career in government or politics -- a rate nearly twice that of boys.

The survey of girls ages 13 to 18 by the Job Shadow Coalition and Harris Interactive also showed only 9 percent of the girls said they were "more likely" to consider such careers.

Keep reading, girls. A Government Accounting Office report released Thursday says women continue to earn less than men on average because women are more likely to have the primary care of the family. They make career decisions that can impact how much they earn and how far they advance.

Still up for debate, the GAO report says, is whether women make these career decisions freely or whether work place discrimination makes the decisions for them.

What we do know is that nearly half of girls aren't interested in the government and political work it takes to figure it out.