I had lived in the city of Seattle for over 50 years and only moved to Kent about seven years ago. I have come to love Kent and am so glad I made the move.
One of the neighbors I met was deeply involved in a group called TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly). I remember years ago hearing about this group, but I had since thought it must have just disappeared.
I was wrong and because you do not hear about it on television or in the papers or magazines (it is non-profit) I still probably wouldn’t have heard about it.
Come to think of it, I might have because there seems to be a lot of TOPS chapters in and around Kent I found this out while checking the TOPS Web site one day.
This neighbor gave me a lot of reading materials about TOPS. Magazines, books and she also had a lot of TOPS memorabilia that she had collected over the years.
I found a group nearby that meets on Tuesday mornings. Well I loved this group so much that I had no desire to try others. I have been going to this group now for nearly four years, and have lost 37 pounds and have kept it off now for nearly two years. But this story is about TOPS, not my success with them.
TOPS has been around for 60 years. The chapter I belong to is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year on Dec. 16, and I thought it was important that it gets the mention that it deserves. TOPS WA 12, Kent chapter’s history began with a group of ladies who were all housewives and began meeting at the Memorial Park building here in Kent.
They met there for several years then moved to the Grange Hall on 132nd here in Kent. They were there for awhile and then went to the Kent Lutheran Church and have been there ever since.
They were originally called the Happy Homemakers. In 2008, TOPS WA 12 has grown to 32 members.
TOPS International has grown to 187,000 members worldwide, including men. In Canada alone, there are now 1,600 chapters of TOPS groups meeting weekly. TOPS is a nonprofit organization with its beginnings in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
When you join a TOPS group, you and your doctor decide on a goal weight that you will strive to attain. When you finally reach that goal you are then called a KOPS (Keep Off Pounds Sensibly). All chapters have a few KOPS but the longest-standing KOPSmember here in Washington is in the chapter I belong to, WA 12, Kent.
Her name is Adel Sheets and she reached her goal weight in 1965, and to this day she attends weekly chapter meetings and has kept to her goal weight all through the years. In fact our chapter has nine KOPS of varying years.
TOPS originally began as four ladies meeting in someone’s home around a kitchen table, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It amazes me that nine days before Christmas these women decided to start a diet club. It seems that I hear from most people around holiday time “gosh, after the holidays I am really going to be careful with my eating and get serious about my exercise,” but most wait until the holidays are over to start.
I and so many others will be forever grateful that these ladies did, however, start TOPS. Look how long TOPS has existed and continues to grow.
Jonette Baron
Kent
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