Lake County >> For 20 years the beginnings of a children’s book, “KC and the Keep Well Kids Club,” were hidden away and forgotten in author Joan Jacobs’ home. “In the early 90s I started writing this book,” Jacobs recalled. “But then things happened, as life happens … So the book went away.” In 2009, in the process of moving, she opened a trunk and spotting the stack of paper. “A friend said, ‘What is that?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ I opened this manuscript. I said, ‘Oh, it’s a book I started 20 years ago.’ I read parts of it to her and she said, ‘You’re gonna finish it. This is too good.’”
That was all the prompting Jacobs needed. “So I wrote the book. And from that point on, it’s just been almost like divine guidance,” she said. “When I wrote this book, I don’t even know why I wrote it … I just wrote. I didn’t have any parameters.”
KC and the Keep Well Kids club originated during Jacobs’ time working for Sutter Lakeside Hospital as the Marketing Director. She spent time in the ER one cold night, watching parents and children come through sporting light clothing, inappropriate for the weather. Jacobs remembered thinking, “We can’t reach the adults, but we can reach the children at an early age and we can affect change.”
Aside from the physical book, KC and the Keep Well Kids Club features two other elements; an interactive website and a product line of learning tools which will be released in 30 to 60 days. Jacobs said that the products will include something for parents, too.
The program is designed to impart important lessons about living a healthy life. “The intent of the book is to teach children wellness and safety, with a cast of colorful, safe and nonthreatening characters,” Jacobs said. “That makes learning fun and entertaining. The vision of the project is to create a whole new generation of healthy children. And that’s the movement that we’ve been behind.”
But KC and the Keep Well Kids Club is much more than just a guidebook for wellness; it’s a story bursting with imagination. “It tells medical things in a fairy tale … It takes place on the Island of Keytonia, in that world, where they learn the keys to good health,” said Jacobs. The cast of characters include Doctor Keepwell and the CRGG’s or the Consciousness Raising Good Germs, a group of kids from many different backgrounds and the villainous Meanie Viruseenies. Then of course there’s KC and her grandpa, Gramp’Andy, who is in fact named after Jacobs own grandfather.
The diverse set of characters are meant to give children various models to look to for health and safety advice. “Instead of saying, ‘No, don’t do that’ or ‘Brush your teeth,’ … what they do is they will identify with a character that’s fun and active and entertaining. So if Everett does it it’s cool. It’s not cool to be told to do it but it’s cool to have somebody who’s doing it with you. So rather than to say no to a child we’re giving them something not threatening, but something of value.”
Jacobs’ marketing background is readily apparent when it comes to these characters. Each of them has their strengths, but each of them faces an obstacle, something they must overcome. “So it’s not like they’re perfect characters,” she said. “They’re characters that the children can identify with we hope.”
KC lives with Gramp’Andy at the bottom of Picnic Peak, a mountain modeled after Mount Konocti. “I lived at the base of Mount Konocti when I wrote the book and finished the book,” explained Jacobs. “So there’s a lot of Lake County similarities.”
However, there’s a section in the story where the children come to a vibrant bog, stinking and covered in goo. “This is green algae and it’s really yucky and it has no reflection whatsoever on the lake,” she said. “This is a pit.”
Jacobs clearly has a deep love for the area, so much so that she’s first launching the book in the county and then letting it grow from there. “I’ve had people from the outside that want to come in, but we’re doing this here. It just means that much to me. So this is going to be something that we own here.” she said. “In essence our program, our movement, is we’re facing an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, bullying, low self esteem, all of those things, and it’s tough in small areas like ours because there’s not as many resources. So what we’re hoping that this does is bring some fun and some entertainment and some light to the kids here.”
To help spread the book’s important messages throughout the area, Jacobs is partnering with organizations and schools in the county. “Dr. Warner of Adventist Health, he works with me on this and just he loves the story and the book and the program. There’s other people who are working with us who are extraordinary,” she said. “We will be working with schools, the civic organization and the hospital and we will introduce this program. This is not a small program. This is pretty substantial and it’s been recognized by some very substantial people. Once we get it off the ground it could be very special for Lake County.”
Upon hearing about The Way to Wellville, Jacobs knew KC and the Keep Well Kids Club could help. The Way to Wellville is a competition between five counties in the United States with poor healthcare reports. In a five-year period, the programs intends to impliment lasting health changes to each of the communities. “I hope that this is something that they can utilize as part of it,” said Jacobs. “It wont answer all of their questions, but as far as preventative programs for children and making healthcare fun and letting the kids teach their friends and their family,” the book will provide valuable information, she said.
The story also hopes to foster kid’s creativity and imagination. “In Lake County, as in other small rural areas … so many of the creative programs have been taken from the schools because they’re not affordable,” Jacobs said. “My hope is that I can work with young children that want to write … If we can encourage some creativity and some imagination here, there’s some brilliant, brilliant children here and to be able to give them a venue to do this I think is exciting.”
It’s no secret that kids don’t look forward to visits to their doctor, but Jacobs is working to change that. The program is designed “to make them more comfortable in the medical environment and to make them understand that these are wonderful people who are here to help you and not something to be frightened of,” she said. “When I grew up, to go to Doctor Jones and get a shot, there was nothing worse. I was terrorized. But it’s very different now.”
KC and the Keep Well Kids Club has a broad appeal and the potential to impact adults as well as children. Jacobs recalled receiving a phone call from a friend, telling her that during his reading of the story he found life lessons for all ages. “I’m blessed in so many ways to be able to write what I wrote. And as it’s turning out, it’s going to be something extraordinary that can impact a lot of lives and that’s really what I’m about,” Jacobs said. “I just think, the lessons in this, there’s so many lessons about life in general and the importance of kindness and forgiveness.”
Jacobs also discovered a lot about herself while writing the story and continually finds new teachings every time she sits down with KC and the other characters. “This book already, if nothing else, it has taught me so much about me. And every time I read it there’s a different message,” she said. “This is a gift. It came to me years ago and I’ve learned so many life lessons as I’ve been through this. The life lessons through this program have been phenomenal.”
She summed up the story’s principal idea succinctly. “The message is, if you have your health you have everything. I looked that up online and no one’s protected that,” Jacobs said. “I think it’s protected in my book.”
KC and the Keep Well Kids Club is just the beginning of many exciting things ahead. Next comes a sequel and Jacobs is also writing a book on bullying. She’s rounded up a group of talented individuals to help her with the project and she couldn’t be more thrilled. “I’m so proud of the team, everybody that brought their gifts to this,” she said. “It’s that good. It has to be because there’s so much energy from so many people in this.”
Though Jacobs has her hand in a lot of different aspects of the project, she hopes one day to work more on the creative side of things and less on the technical components. “I’m the CEO, I’m the marketer, I am the financier, I’m running the company which is Creative Kids Concepts, but when I can give this all away to other people and I can just write, that’s my dream. That’s when I know that I’ve made it,” she said.
According to Jacobs, children have responded with enthusiasm to KC and her friends. “How blessed am I to have something that’s of that much interest to children?” she said. “It’s a gift that I can give, and wake up with purpose and meaning. There’s nothing better than that.”
KC and the Keep Well Kids Club can be purchased at Watershed Books in Lakeport, Anna’s Boutique in Kelseyville and online at www.keytonia.com.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
