Summer 2010

Summertime and the living is…O.K. frankly a lot harder than just a few years ago - but here at Generation Excel we are marching on and hailing the return of the Summer weather!

First off thanks to the great audience at G-Tech in Providence last month for my corporate wellness presentation "Healthy Bodies = Healthy Business". I enjoyed meeting everybody and listening to the other speakers. After 6 years and over 200 events with Generation Excel I've become convinced that the unspoken villains in today's obesity epidemic are schedules, workloads, workplace stress and unhealthy work environments. So naturally the more events like the one G-Tech hosted the better. Special thanks to United Healthcare for bringing me in.

And a big, big congratulations to our 2010 Boston Marathon running team: Tony Racioppi, 5:22; Tony Blank, 5:52; and Steve Smith, 5:45. Steve ran for his brother Dave who struggled with severe morbid obesity for many years and sadly past away last year. I had the pleasure of meeting Dave in my office back in 2001 during the early days of planning and designing Generation Excel. We wish his family well and commend Steve on his tribute run.

Desi James, our 3 ½ year old cheered on all the runners from the finish line and got an up close taste of one of the world's most prestigious sports events.

We're thrilled to report that it looks like singer/songwriter Kimberly Dahme, who plays bass guitar for the legendary rock band Boston (and is an incredibly talented solo performer in her own right) will be collaborating with us and contributing music to a unique PSA/Music video showing Generation Excel's work around the country with children. We are working on a deal to have Ms. Dahme's 2005 song "I Got You" as the soundtrack for the video which will include footage from 2004's Million Calorie March, 2005-2006's Million Pound Meltdown and 2008's Million Step March campaigns. If all works out you can look for the video to premiere on our Youtube Channel, Facebook page and on this website as well as future GXL live events. Visit Kimberly's website

There's always plenty more going on behind the scenes here at Generation Excel in terms of the Million Calorie Movie and meetings about future campaigns. We'll share the news with you as soon as things become a reality.

And finally a BIG BIG thank you to Gen Excel's Julia Campbell and Russ Surette who after much arm twisting convinced me to put GXL up on Facebook, Youtube and other well known social networking sites in the non-profit world. You can see their great work here:
Fan us on Facebook!
Join our Cause on Facebook
Watch our videos on YouTube
Re-launched movie site

Spring 2010

Ahhhh…Spring is finally here (enjoying the 60 degree weather anyone?) and at Generation Excel we're preparing to hit the road for a series of health and wellness events across the country in places such as Alabama, Connecticut, Rhode Island and right here in the Boston area.

Our fundraising benefit earlier this month with Liam Nation, a brand new start up which benefits special needs kids, was a terrific night. It was great to see so many longtime GXL supporters and friends and the evening's performer Jon Stetson gave a truly heart stopping magic, mentalist and psychic performance. One highlight for me was Nicky Sestitio - the young actor who played me in the "Million Calorie March" movie. Now 17, Nick walked in the door 67 lbs lighter and all grown up into an amazing young man. What a great story he is!

Speaking of the movie we've launched a new website for the film which includes trailers, film scenes, reviews and behind the scenes stories at http://www.millioncaloriemarch/movie.com.

Many have asked about Michelle Obama's Let's Move Childhood Obesity Campaign and if we plan to contact them about the film. Checkmark on that: Thanks to longtime GXL supporter Todd G. Patkin, the "Million Calorie March" Movie is at the White House as I write this.

In other GXL news I'm thrilled to announce our new partnership with Playworks (formally Sports4kids). This innovative and exciting program is currently in 23 schools in Massachusetts and is transitioning recess into a cutting edge type of Physical Education. As most know at Generation Excel we have always lobbied and campaigned for the return of daily physical education to our schools. Playworks is a creative way to do achieve this and as a new board member my goal is to elevate Playworks profile, help it spread to more schools and help achieve more corporate funding. Supporting this program will be a centerpiece if our efforts in the years to come. Visit www.playworks.org to see more.

Later this month on March 28 at the Woburn Country Club we'll be hosting a March Madness Fundraiser for our 2010 Boston Marathon Running Team. This year's runners include Steve Smith (a good old friend of Generation Excel), longtime pal Tony Racioppi and new comer Tony Blank. Come by and enjoy the games, music, raffles and appetizers and support Team GXL. Click here for details.

A photo tribute to the historic 2008 "Million Step March" campaign with Blue Cross has been added to the website. Click here to view it.

Finally - in the absence of a major campaign right now (thank you 2010 economy!) I've been taking advantage of the downtime by working on the follow-up book to "Big & Tall Chronicles". Currently titled "After The March: Confessions Of An Obesity Crusader," the book takes readers on the road with Generation Excel's campaigns in Pennsylvania, the North Carolina and of course our 2004 Florida to Boston campaign. It includes events we've done across the country, the making of the movie, the interesting people we've met, the stories from the front lines of the obesity war and of course my own continued struggle. Looking back at Generation Excel's first 5 years has been eye opening and I've enjoyed it.

Hope to see everybody soon !

Gary

DECADE…December 1, 2009

Wow…is it really 2010 already? What happened to 2004? Or 2001 for that reason. That was the year Generation Excel was conceived. So as the decade fades to black here it’s only natural to look back, smile and take a very important lesson from it.

It was the Spring of 2001 and I was sitting in my office in Burlington, Mass., after hours watching the small TV in my office. By then I was on my way to losing the first of what would be 150 pounds and I was researching the obesity epidemic everyday in an attempt to better understand it. As I watched the TV, I wondered where all the health campaigns, PSAs, documentary films, reality shows and community programs were. If this was truly the biggest epidemic to threaten our country (as I was learning) why wasn’t there more being done to help fight obesity? Where was the anti-tobacco type campaign against obesity?

In my heart…I knew that the only good that could ever come from the years I’d battled this disease was to try to do something positive with the experience I’d had. I drew up a blueprint in my office that day of a grass roots Florida to Boston awareness walk which would help raise money for a non-profit I would start called Generation Excel. The hope was that the campaign would spur corporate America and healthcare companies into backing similar “impact campaigns” in various parts of the country. The blueprint included a book about childhood obesity, an inspirational documentary film and a unique non-profit which would award community grants to programs nationally to help prevent future “little Garys”. I imagined a non-profit where concerned parents could call for support, advice or financial assistance to send their kids to exercise classes after school or weight loss camps during the summer. I wanted to create an organization my mother Lorraine “Rainbow” Marino would have called on back in the late 1970’s when her son began to show the signs of the food addiction and emotional eating to come.

That was April 2001. The amazing thing is that as I sit here at the end of 2009 the entire blueprint that I drew up in my office has actually happened. 4 national campaigns, over 200 events, an award winning film, a book, community grants and thousands of inspired people later - the plan has been realized. No matter where it goes from here…that will always bring a smile to my face.

Our Florida to Boston walking campaign reached over 70 million people in the spring and summer of 2004. Along the way we raised funds for weight loss camps for kids, community grants to health programs for inner city children, and helped to fund childhood obesity initiatives from Los Angeles to North Carolina to Rhode Island to Boston.

In 2005 the book “Big & Tall Chronicles” (culled from my personal journals of losing 150 pounds) was published and released via Barnes & Noble Bookstores from coast to coast (with all profits going to Generation Excel).

That spring, Blue Cross Blue Shield - taking notice of my grass roots campaign - backed the first of 3 campaigns I’ve done. The “Million Pound Meltdown” campaign in Pennsylvania was a 2 year effort which resulted in over 52,000 pounds being lost (confirmed by PCPs). Real lives were impacted, which is what Generation Excel was always supposed to be about.

By 2007 we were deep into production of an inspirational and educational film about obesity based on my walk, book and the overall issue of obesity in America. The film premiered in 2007/08 in Boston, New York, The Carolinas, Texas and Florida and won an International “Freddie” Health Award last year. It continues to screen at health and wellness events across the country and currently has broadcast offers from 2 major cable TV networks for the coming year.

2008’s campaign for Blue Cross, The Million Step March, was an amazing 600 mile walk across North Carolina from Asheville to Wilmington with over 6,400 people participating. We produced 60 live events (campaign stops) during the 75 day walk and electrified the community through the media. We also awarded a $75,000 grant to the Girl Scouts during the campaign at the finish line and later that Fall Generation Excel funded 3 more grants to initiatives combating childhood obesity.

This past year, despite the economy and looming healthcare reform, we still managed to do a community wide campaign in Hilton Head, SC with Dr. Howard Rankin, as well as events in Texas, Harrisburg, PA, Palm Beach, Florida and here in the Boston area as well. As always we worked with lots of families and adults helping people to get on or stay on a healthy path. Even our men’s weight loss support, The Knights of Excel, is wrapping up its second year with some real bonefide results. And that folks is what Generation Excel was supposed to be about to begin with.

So the blue print has become reality and America itself has changed right along with us. Today there are obesity campaigns, reality TV shows, PSAs, community challenges, corporate weight loss contests and millions of people working to help turn the epidemic around. This month President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama announced a national initiative to fight the epidemic of childhood obesity. No matter where your politics lie…it is simply amazing to see the White House take this issue on. I’m no longer disillusioned.

But the lesson I talked about earlier…and this has nothing to do with obesity or weight loss…is that none of this happened the way we thought it would. None of it. There were more challenges, obstacles and learning curves for this aggressive plan than we ever anticipated. Nothing was easy and none of these opportunities fell into our laps. Yet in the end we learned to expect obstacles, deal with them and just “keep on marching”. I think there’s a lesson there about life in general, don't you think? Expect obstacles. If it’s worth it you’ll get around them.

When I left for our first campaign in 2004, my sister gave me a card which read “ALL KNOW THE WAY…FEW ACTUALLY WALK IT”

At Generation Excel, I’m happy to say we’ve been ‘walking the walk’ for 6 years – and in turn have received incredible experiences and feeling of accomplishment.

This website is an on-line legacy to those experiences and accomplishments. Feel free to navigate around…it’s all here!

I hope I continue with Generation Excel for many years to come

See you down the road and walk on!

Peace-
Gary Marino

Summer 2009

Hi Gang!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our events this past Spring. I truly enjoyed meeting all of you and appreciate your e-mails since I returned home as well. Although Generation Excel will NOT be on the road producing any major walking campaigns for 2009, we have been busy doing events around the country and catching our breath after last year's barnstorming health and wellness tour across North Carolina.

Big thank yous to the spirited audiences in Galveston Island at the University Of Texas Health Fair (my first ever trip to the Lone Star State).

In Harrisburg Pennsylvania I hosted Highmark Blue Cross's National Walk At Work Day and presented my new talk "It's Not The Wake Up Call...It's What You Do With it" to one of the best crowds I think I've ever spoken to. Having worked many times in Northeastern Pennsylvania for a different Blue Cross Plan - it was good to visit the western part of the state in the Pittsburgh/ Harrisburg area. As I told the crowd after I was introduced..."I know my career is cooking when I'm working both sides of Route 81!

The Palm Beach International Film Festival was a dazzling display of movies, black tie galas, parties and celebrities. On top of it all - it was one of the best run festivals "Million Calorie March" has screened at and the organizers treated us very well. I truly felt like old friends with all the festival producers by the end. When I returned home to Boston many friends back here asked me if I had "walked the red carpet" at the festival. Come on! If you know me by now you all know I'm not a "red carpet" kind of guy. "Million Calorie March" was a labor of love for me. So no - naturally I walked around and entered with the press corps covering the events.

In Gen Excel news - congratulations and thank you to our 2009 Boston Marathon Runners Andrea Melton, Marc Anderson and Jeremy Miner for running on the Generation Excel Team and raising funds for our on-going initiatives and community grants program. We appreciate all of your hard work and dedication.

In other news our "Knights Of Excel" men's weight loss support group (launched a year ago by myself, Gen Excel's Dr. Howard Rankin and Boston Businessman Bob Devasto) continues to grow and has yielded amazing results for many of it's members. The Knights have lost 30, 50, 100+ pounds so far! We've also added a new twist to our weekly Wednesday Night meetings...group workouts at Body By Boyle's Gym in Winchester. The meeting still begin at 7pm in the conference room - where we talk weight loss issues and share information before working out at 8pm. trust me...you haven't lived to you see the Knights Of Excel in a group workout together!

The new edition of "Marching On..." The Generation Excel Newsletter is out and covers everything from our community grants to our major accomplishments over the last year.

Finally - it's hard to believe it's been a year but the spirited 600 mile, 75 day 60 event "Million Step March" campaign (with Blue Cross and Blue Shield) across North Carolina ended almost a year ago in Wilmington. It was a memorable campaign for all of us at Generation Excel and to commemorate the one year anniversary of it's finish-line celebration we came across this media interview I did on "The Henry Hinton Show" in Greenville on WTIB 94.3FM.

Enjoy! And I'll see you this Summer...

Keep On "Marching"

Gary

Spring is Sprung at Generation Excel!

Well folks, this time last year Generation Excel launched its biggest and most aggressive campaign to date - 2008's "Million Step March Tour" with Blue Cross Of North Carolina.
Spring is always a busy time for us - and this year we'll be hitting the road in different parts of the country. Hope you can join us if you live in these areas:

April 17 & 18 - 15th Annual Galveston Health Fair, Galveston Island, Texas.
Generation Excel brings its inspiring message of hope to Texas for the very first time. Special thanks to the University Of Texas for bringing me in!

April 20 - 113th Boston Marathon
We'll be at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street to cheer on our 2009 Gen Excel Running Team: Bob Devasto of Winchester, Andrea Melton of Natick, Jeremy Minor of Denver, CO and Marc Anderson of Waban, MA. Feel free to make pledges in their names to Gen Excel if you would like to!

April 24-27 - Palm Beach International Film Festival, FL One of the great film festivals out there…we tragically missed this last year during the North Carolina campaign but we're thrilled to screen it at this year's festival.

April 28 & 29 - National Walk @ Work Day , Harrisburg, PA From Palm Beach we go to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to host Horizon Blue Shield's "National Walk At Work Day". Motivational talks and of course employee walks are all part of the agenda (this event is not open to the public).

See you on the road everyone! Stay tuned to this website for more exciting news to come!

Best-
Gary

February / March 2009
600 turn out for South Carolina Movie Premiere

Hi Gang –

After spending much of 2008 in North Carolina producing Blue Cross’ “Million Step March Tour” it seems like 2009 has been all about their neighbors to the south this Winter.

The Inspiring Wellness campaign in South Carolina launched by Generation Excel’s Dr. Howard Rankin has been going terrific as well, with usually over 200 people from the community coming out to the Tuesday night wellness seminars and Saturday Beach walks. I’ve visited a few times this Winter to address the audiences as well and meet some of the “healthy” success stories. It’s been a wonderful community effort and it’s great to see people really pull together to become engaged in their health. You can visit the website at www.inspiringwellness.org for a look.

Speaking of South Carolina - as I write this I am flying back from the Eat Smart Move More Teachers conference in Bluffton, SC, where I got to talk to teachers about the importance of being good influences on their student’s health. It was a terrific event, and a chance to use my story to try to prevent future “little Gary’s” out there. Special thanks to Jennifer Wright from Hilton Head Regional Hospital for putting the event together and bringing me in. After spending so much time in this state I’ve become convinced that a campaign similar to what Gen Excel has done in the past is needed and would help “light the fire” under countless people of all ages – so we are working on that as well.

Back home in Massachusetts I’ll be speaking at Middlesex Community College (Bedford Campus Center Building #8) on February 25th at 11am. It is part of their “Health Week” activities and I’ll be doing my presentation “It’s Not The Wakeup Call…It’s What You Do With It!” Check it out if you are interested.

Finally, our 2009 Boston Marathon Team is in place and we are excited for them! Winchester’s Bob Devasto – who ran in 2005 for us and appears in the “Million Calorie March” movie will be running again - as well as Gen Excel first timers Andrea Melton of Natick, Jeremy Minor of Denver, CO and Marc Anderson of Waban, MA. Funds raised from this year's Marathon will support on-going efforts of Generation Excel such as our support group and our annual community grants given out to childhood obesity programs (click here for a look at past years grants). Please support these runners by making a pledge or donation in their names.

Well folks - that’s really just the tip of the iceberg here at Generation Excel. There is a lot more in the works and I’ll keep you informed of other happenings in future journals.

Keep on marching toward your health…

Peace-
G

January 2009 - History of Generation Excel Launched

Happy New Year everyone!

It's hard to believe, but Generation Excel officially kicks off its 5th year this month. After the whirlwind of 2008 we at GXL can't wait to see what's in store for 2009.

It's a new year so let's deal with all things "NEW":

Here are a couple of pictures from The Freddie Awards from late 2008 of Todd, I and Dr. Rankin accepting the statue in Philadelphia which was a big honor and a great night for GXL.

Other things new? "Million Calorie March: The Movie" has signed with a new Producers Representative in NYC. Late last year we began working with Richard Abramowitz of Abromarama. Richard is a seasoned pro and is enthusiastic about the film. He will join forces with our own irreplaceable Laura Yellen to seek out broadcast and Home DVD opportunities for the movie.

What else is new? A shorter edited down version of the movie and new theatrical trailers are on the way as well…compliments of our talented editor Jeff Schmidt.

Okay - in keeping with the "NEW things" theme. We are in the process of putting together a new GXL Running team for this year's Boston Marathon to raise funds for the cause. Let us know if you or anyone you know is interested at gary@genexcel.org

The most important "new" development on a personal level is a brand new approach to my health which I have never tried but am currently undertaking. I'll get more into this as the year goes on - but lets say that I am vigorously back in the game and aggressively trying to lose more weight and push my health goals further that at any time since 2004's "Million Calorie March" walk of the eastern seaboard. Staying in the fight is an important of an unfinished struggle - and I am very hopeful and optimistic for my health goals for 2009.

And finally, wrapping up what's new… GXL has opened a new office in Burlington, Mass at 87 Cambridge Street…drop in and say hello if you are in the neighborhood.

Here's to a great 2009 everyone!

Peace-

G

Read Gary's Previous Journals